THE dedication of an honour roll acknowledging the service of 35 former students and one staff member in conflicts since Vietnam was a highlight of The Armidale School’s Anzac service, held on Thursday 2 May.
Present were members of many families of those Old Boys awarded the Australian Active Service Medal who between them have served in eight theatres – Northern Ireland, Kuwait, Somalia, the Balkans, as part of the International Coalition Against Terror (ICAT), East Timor, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Unveiling the honour board, Old Boy and former Commanding Officer of the TAS Cadet Unit Grant Harris spoke of two whom he had taught – Lieutenant Michael Fussell who was killed in November 2008 while on service in Afghanistan, and Naval Lieutenant Huw Paffard, who served in Northern Ireland, the Balkans and Iraq but died in a civilian accident when the helicopter he was flying crashed into powerlines as he piloted his sister to her wedding in 1999.
“The stories of these two Old Boys reflect courage and service that is a hallmark of TAS,” Mr Harris said.
It reflected the theme of the address delivered earlier in the morning by special guest Major-General Paul Brereton AM RFD, who spoke of a former TAS teacher who went on to become one of the nation’s greatest military leaders.
In 1911 the then TAS headmaster T.K. Abbott appointed Leslie Morshead to the staff at TAS, as a general master, music teacher and chapel organist.
“He also assumed command of the school’s depleted cadet unit and turned it into one that functioned and then flourished,” Major-General Brereton said.
Morshead went on to be an outstanding commander on the Western Front in World War I, and is widely recognised as the finest Australian field commander of World War II for his efforts in Tobruk, El Alamein, New Guinea and Borneo.
“Although he left TAS at the end of 1913, for the future Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie Morshead, this was his first command. Years later he said that he had met many great men – including Churchill and Roosevelt – but none had overshadowed his image of T.K. Abbott.”
Major-General Brereton said it was through Australia’s servicemen and women that the nation continued to discharge her obligations as a good world citizen.
“And so, while we remember those who have served and given their lives in conflicts of the past, let us also remember the Australian servicemen and women who today are in harm’s way in far-flung parts of the globe, in the footsteps of their Anzac predecessors,” he said.
