Schools’ remembrance march on for young and old

While controversy rages over the number of people allowed to attend Anzac Day marches and services, two old Diggers are marching on, determined to ­inspire the next generation.

Arthur Stanton with Spearwood Primary School students, from left, Lyla, Cooper, Fiona and Ashlee, all aged 11. Picture: Colin Murty

While controversy rages over the number of people allowed to attend Anzac Day marches and services, two old Diggers are marching on, determined to ­inspire the next generation.

In the City of Cockburn, south of Perth, 1600 students from 33 schools marched the nearly two kilometres from Spearwood Primary School to the Field of Poppies memorial park, where they ran their own service, on Wednesday.

On Friday, the last school day before Anzac Sunday, they will also hold an Anzac service in their respective school grounds.

The RSL-run youth march is in its 20th year, having started with 12 schools and being inspired by an element of interstate rivalry.

A former sergeant in the 1st Battalion Pacific Island Regiment in Port Moresby, Arthur Stanton, says the idea emerged when on a trip to Queensland he saw ­students from one school marching down the main street.

“I thought ‘if they can do it, we can do it bigger and better in the west’,” he said. “It has grown over the years and I reckon there is nothing as big as this kind of march anywhere in Australia.

“If you add it up, we must have had well over 20,000 school­children taking part.”

Mr Stanton marched alongside his mate, ex-serviceman and Cockburn RSL welfare officer Malcolm “Tiny” Small.

“It’s a great grounding for young people and teaches them respect for our veterans,” said Mr Small, who served in the Royal Australian Navy during the Vietnam War.

“It’s not a celebration of war; we are commemorating the people who went off to war and gave their lives for their country.”

Spearwood Primary School principal Marta Rotondella said the youth march was valuable ­because many students didn’t get to other Anzac Day ceremonies.

“It’s a very public sign of respect and it gets noticed,” she said.

“I get calls from complete strangers afterwards saying what a great thing it is that young ­people are part of it.”

Attendance at dawn services across Australia will be lower this year because of COVID restrictions and a requirement to register attendance online. This has sparked some outrage following decisions to allow tens of thousands more people into the footy than to march in remembrance.

Social distancing requirements have forced cancellation of the RSL dawn service in the nearby City of Rockingham, home to the navy’s largest home base.

Mr Stanton is appalled. “It may be controversial saying this but why is it that 55,000 people are ­allowed to attend the football in Perth but only 10,000 can register to go to the Kings Park dawn service?”