The truce officially ended World War I and the fighting between the Allied Powers and the German Empire. 

Sunday morning saw residents both young and old of Griffith make their way to the City’s Cenotaph to commemorate above all – those who had given their lives to protect the freedom of their country. 

Vietnam War veterans John Goslepp and Ken Tucker were among the handful of ex-service people attending, and said they were appreciative of the work that had been done this month to install a new plaque on the Cenotaph. 

The plaque was put in place by members of the Griffith RSL sub-branch and came following research by Theo Bollen and Margaret Tucker to allow the Cenotaph to identify and pay homage, for the first time, to 18 Griffith men who died in World War I plus an extra six servicemen from World War II. 

“I reckon it’s a ripper, absolutely beautiful, they have done a good job,” Mr Goslepp said.

Although Griffith has sadly lost its World War I veterans, Sing Australia choir leader Leith Fry said she could feel her her grandfathers standing with her at the ceremony. 

“(Remembrance) is essential, it will go forever because our kids are picking it up,” Mrs Fry said. 

Mrs Fry said the surviving veterans are always ‘delighted’ to see children attending Anzac Day services.  

“I think Anzac Day will live on forever, I introduced my children to dawn services when they were 10,” choir member Odette Dotter said 

“Now there are more children at Anzac Day services than I have ever seen before, here all the school children even through the Holiday’s take part in the Anzac Day parade,” Mrs Dotter said.  

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The 1918 Armistice of Compiègn was signed in the Forest of Compiègn in the Picardy Region of France. 

It was signed on the personal rail coach of Allied Supreme Commander Marshal Ferdinand Foch and was the very same coach in which Adolf Hitler oversaw the surrender of France to Germany on June 22 1940. 

Although the Armistice of Compiègn did establish the end of hostilities in World War I, it had to be extended three times and it was not until the Treaty of Versailles signed on 28 June 1919 when the ‘state of war’ was officially declared to be ended. 

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