Dawn Service
“WE DARE NOT FORGET”, “though there would be much we would rather forget ... we dare not forget the spirit of the Anzac Tradition”, the words of the New Zealand Chaplain Commandant Peter Savage in his opening prayer to commemorate Anzac Day in Wellington in 2012.
The Dawn Service on Anzac Day has become a solemn Australian and New Zealand tradition. The first anniversary of the landing (25 April 1916) was observed in Australia, New Zealand, England and by troops in Egypt and was officially named ‘Anzac Day’ in Australia by the then Acting Prime Minister, George Pearce. By the mid-1930s, all the rituals we now associate with the day – dawn vigils, marches, memorial services, reunions, two-up games – were firmly established as part of the Anzac Day culture. One needs to bear in mind the difference between a “Parade” and a “Service”. The a Parade is primarily a military ceremony while the Service is Church (Religious) that is led exclusively by a Padre, and may consist centrally of prayers and hymns while it might also be a Requiem Mass or Eucharist, depending on the Padre’s “churchmanship”.
The Dawn Service is thought to symbolise the half-light of dawn of the Gallipoli landing. Dawn was one of the most favoured times for an attack as sleeping soldier were very vulnerable, it was important for soldiers in defensive positions to be alert, and manning their weapons; this is still known as the ‘stand-to’.
Returned soldiers sought the comradeship they had felt in those quiet, peaceful moments before dawn. A dawn vigil, recalling the wartime front line practice of the dawn ‘stand-to’, became the basis of a form of commemoration in several places both during and after the war.
During the 1920’s, the format and design of the manner in which Anzac Day services and commemorations were to be observed were developing with a strong religious focus (albeit Christian, although not strongly one church over the others), particularly from the Anzac Day Commemoration Committee which was formed in Brisbane in January 1916[1].
Within Australia the Dawn Service is not an Army specific ceremony. It is a public ceremony normally conducted on behalf of the community by the Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) with involvement across all three Services of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). As the origin of the Dawn Service is not clear and subject to many differing views and some myths, there is ongoing research into this area by a number of historians that may assist in clarifying this issue. It is possible that a true and definitive answer to the origin of the first Dawn Service may never be firmly established but there is likelihood, at some point in the future, that the most probable candidate will be identified and accepted by the broader community.
It is probable that the holding of a commemorative service at dawn may have had its origins from either the military practice of ‘stand to’ at dawn on the battle field, or it may also have recognised origins from the dawn landing at Gallipoli (25 April 1915).
Current research indicates there may be a number of origins for the public commemoration of the Dawn Service, which were held independent of each other:
· A day time service held on the Western Front by the 14th Infantry Brigade on 25 Apr 1916
· A service held at Toowoomba Queensland in 1919[2]
· A service conducted in Albany, Western Australia in 1927/28
· A dawn stand-to or dawn ceremony during the 1920s in New Zealand on Anzac Day as a remembrance
· A service held in the newly build Cenotaph at Martin Place, Sydney in 1927.
The advent of the Dawn Service (as indicated above) is subject to conjecture but a strong contender for the first Dawn Service, and the one that appears and is noted by the Australian War Memorial (AWM) to be the first ‘Official’ Dawn Service is the one held at the Cenotaph in Martin Place, Sydney’s CBD; the other is the story of Reverend Arthur Ernest White (see Note); both are outlined as follows:
1. Martin Place, Sydney. In 1927, the Cenotaph was still under construction and was a building site. As the story goes, five men ‘winding their way home after an Anzac Eve function in the early hours of Anzac Day 1927’ came across an elderly women laying some flowers on the building site that was the still to be completed Cenotaph. The men joined to women and bowed their heads and resolved to arrange a Dawn Service for the next years Anzac Day. In 1928 about 150 people attended the Cenotaph for a Dawn Service where flowers were laid and two minutes silence was observed. Dawn Services attracted more and more attention and by 1935, 10,000 people attended the service at the Cenotaph.
2. Reverend Arthur Ernest White.[3],[4],[5] His story is buried in a small cemetery carved out of the bush some kilometres outside the northern Queensland town of Herberton. Almost ironically, one grave stands out by its simplicity; it is covered by protective white-washed concrete slab with a plain cement cross at its top end. No epitaph recalls even the name of the deceased, the Inscription on the cross a mere two words – ‘A Priest’. Nobody could identify the grave as that of a dedicated clergyman who is purported to have assisted in the creation of the Dawn Service, without the simple marker placed in recent times next to the grave only. It reads:
“Adjacent to, and on the right of this marker, lies the grave of the late Reverend Arthur Ernest White, a Church of England clergyman and padre, 44th Battalion, 1st Australian Imperial Force. On 25 April 1923[6] at Albany in Western Australia, the Reverend White led a party of friends in what was the first ever observance of a dawn parade on Anzac Day, thus establishing a tradition which has endured, Australia wide ever since”.
Arthur Edward White was a Londoner who had trained for Holy Orders in England and migrated to Western Australia to serve as a priest in the Brotherhood of St Boniface. As a Church of England clergyman he belonged to the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church. Reverend White was serving as one of the civilian padres of the earliest ANZACs to leave Australia with the AIF in November 1914. The convoy assembled at Princess Royal Harbour and King George Sound in Albany WA. Before embarkation, at four in the morning, he conducted a service for all the men of the battalion. Soon after the Gallipoli campaign Reverend White applied to his Bishop for release from the brotherhood in order to serve overseas as a Chaplain. This happened and Reverend White began service in on the Western Front in France where he reputedly used to celebrate the Eucharist in the trenches. His portable altar and sacred vessels are preserved in a vitrine in the sanctuary of his old church in Albany and chalice is held by the Forbes (NSW) RSL. When Reverend White returned to Australia in 1919 he served for some time in Victorian and NSW parishes and after Forbes, in 1927/28, he was appointed relieving Rector of the St John’s Church in Albany. There he began the practice every Anzac Day of celebrating a requiem Mass for the fallen very early in the morning. After celebrating Mass, he would lead the congregation to the shore and had a wreath cast on the waters in recollection of the fact that it was from there that the ANZACs were transported to Egypt for training.
It was a coincidence that the starting point of the AIF convoys should now become his parish. It is thought to be the memory of his first Dawn Service for the departing soldiers many years earlier and his experiences overseas, combined with the overwhelming cost of lives and injuries, which inspired him to honour permanently the valiant men, both living and the dead, who had joined the fight for the Allied cause. “Albany”, he is quoted to have said, “was the last sight of land these ANZAC troops saw after leaving Australian shores and some of them never returned. We should hold a service (here) at the first light of dawn each Anzac Day to commemorate them”.
It has been said that on Anzac Day he came to hold the first Commemorative Dawn Service. As the sun was rising, a man in a small dinghy cast a wreath into King George Sound while Reverend White, with a band of about 20 men gathered round him on the summit of nearby Mount Clarence, silently watched the wreath floating out to sea. He then quietly recited the words:
“As the sun rises and goeth down, we will remember them”.
All present were deeply moved and news of the Ceremony soon spread throughout Australia; and the various Returned Service Communities came to emulate the Ceremony.
Eventually, Reverend White was transferred from Albany to serve other congregations, first in South Australia, then Broken Hill where he built a church, then later at Forbes NSW. In his retirement from parish life, he moved to Herberton where he became Chaplain of an Anglican convent. Soon after his arrival in Herberton he died (26 September 1954) and was buried modestly and anonymously as ‘A Priest’.
Footnotes:
[1] John A Moses & George F Davis, Anzac Day Origins: Canon DJ Garland and Trans-Tasman Commemoration, Barton Books, 2013, Chapter 4, Page 79.
[2] Darling Downs Gazette: 24 April 1919, Page 6 (“ANZAC DAY. OBSERVANCE IN TOOWOOMBA. The Fourth Anniversary of Anzac Day will be commemorated in Toowoomba on Friday. Services will be held in all churches in the morning. In the Roman Catholic Churches, will commence at 7 a.m. and in the other churches at 11 a.m.” (Note: Dawn actually occurred at 6:13 am))
[3] Unknown author.
[4] Captain (Chaplain) Arthur Ernest White, BA University of Leeds, enlisted 17 Mar 1916, Chaplian 44 Bn, embarked ex-Freemantle 31 May 1916 (Suvic), appointment terminated 26 Feb 1918; born England 27 Aug 1883 – died Herberton Queensland 26 Sept 1954.
[5] Emails and discussions, Terrett/John Moses (priest), Professorial Associate, St Mark’s National Theological Centre, Barton, ACT: 25 July 2014
[6] Note: Reverend White was not in Albany, WA in 1923, he did not return to Albany until 1927/28.
The Dawn Service on Anzac Day has become a solemn Australian and New Zealand tradition. The first anniversary of the landing (25 April 1916) was observed in Australia, New Zealand, England and by troops in Egypt and was officially named ‘Anzac Day’ in Australia by the then Acting Prime Minister, George Pearce. By the mid-1930s, all the rituals we now associate with the day – dawn vigils, marches, memorial services, reunions, two-up games – were firmly established as part of the Anzac Day culture. One needs to bear in mind the difference between a “Parade” and a “Service”. The a Parade is primarily a military ceremony while the Service is Church (Religious) that is led exclusively by a Padre, and may consist centrally of prayers and hymns while it might also be a Requiem Mass or Eucharist, depending on the Padre’s “churchmanship”.
The Dawn Service is thought to symbolise the half-light of dawn of the Gallipoli landing. Dawn was one of the most favoured times for an attack as sleeping soldier were very vulnerable, it was important for soldiers in defensive positions to be alert, and manning their weapons; this is still known as the ‘stand-to’.
Returned soldiers sought the comradeship they had felt in those quiet, peaceful moments before dawn. A dawn vigil, recalling the wartime front line practice of the dawn ‘stand-to’, became the basis of a form of commemoration in several places both during and after the war.
During the 1920’s, the format and design of the manner in which Anzac Day services and commemorations were to be observed were developing with a strong religious focus (albeit Christian, although not strongly one church over the others), particularly from the Anzac Day Commemoration Committee which was formed in Brisbane in January 1916[1].
Within Australia the Dawn Service is not an Army specific ceremony. It is a public ceremony normally conducted on behalf of the community by the Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) with involvement across all three Services of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). As the origin of the Dawn Service is not clear and subject to many differing views and some myths, there is ongoing research into this area by a number of historians that may assist in clarifying this issue. It is possible that a true and definitive answer to the origin of the first Dawn Service may never be firmly established but there is likelihood, at some point in the future, that the most probable candidate will be identified and accepted by the broader community.
It is probable that the holding of a commemorative service at dawn may have had its origins from either the military practice of ‘stand to’ at dawn on the battle field, or it may also have recognised origins from the dawn landing at Gallipoli (25 April 1915).
Current research indicates there may be a number of origins for the public commemoration of the Dawn Service, which were held independent of each other:
· A day time service held on the Western Front by the 14th Infantry Brigade on 25 Apr 1916
· A service held at Toowoomba Queensland in 1919[2]
· A service conducted in Albany, Western Australia in 1927/28
· A dawn stand-to or dawn ceremony during the 1920s in New Zealand on Anzac Day as a remembrance
· A service held in the newly build Cenotaph at Martin Place, Sydney in 1927.
The advent of the Dawn Service (as indicated above) is subject to conjecture but a strong contender for the first Dawn Service, and the one that appears and is noted by the Australian War Memorial (AWM) to be the first ‘Official’ Dawn Service is the one held at the Cenotaph in Martin Place, Sydney’s CBD; the other is the story of Reverend Arthur Ernest White (see Note); both are outlined as follows:
1. Martin Place, Sydney. In 1927, the Cenotaph was still under construction and was a building site. As the story goes, five men ‘winding their way home after an Anzac Eve function in the early hours of Anzac Day 1927’ came across an elderly women laying some flowers on the building site that was the still to be completed Cenotaph. The men joined to women and bowed their heads and resolved to arrange a Dawn Service for the next years Anzac Day. In 1928 about 150 people attended the Cenotaph for a Dawn Service where flowers were laid and two minutes silence was observed. Dawn Services attracted more and more attention and by 1935, 10,000 people attended the service at the Cenotaph.
2. Reverend Arthur Ernest White.[3],[4],[5] His story is buried in a small cemetery carved out of the bush some kilometres outside the northern Queensland town of Herberton. Almost ironically, one grave stands out by its simplicity; it is covered by protective white-washed concrete slab with a plain cement cross at its top end. No epitaph recalls even the name of the deceased, the Inscription on the cross a mere two words – ‘A Priest’. Nobody could identify the grave as that of a dedicated clergyman who is purported to have assisted in the creation of the Dawn Service, without the simple marker placed in recent times next to the grave only. It reads:
“Adjacent to, and on the right of this marker, lies the grave of the late Reverend Arthur Ernest White, a Church of England clergyman and padre, 44th Battalion, 1st Australian Imperial Force. On 25 April 1923[6] at Albany in Western Australia, the Reverend White led a party of friends in what was the first ever observance of a dawn parade on Anzac Day, thus establishing a tradition which has endured, Australia wide ever since”.
Arthur Edward White was a Londoner who had trained for Holy Orders in England and migrated to Western Australia to serve as a priest in the Brotherhood of St Boniface. As a Church of England clergyman he belonged to the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church. Reverend White was serving as one of the civilian padres of the earliest ANZACs to leave Australia with the AIF in November 1914. The convoy assembled at Princess Royal Harbour and King George Sound in Albany WA. Before embarkation, at four in the morning, he conducted a service for all the men of the battalion. Soon after the Gallipoli campaign Reverend White applied to his Bishop for release from the brotherhood in order to serve overseas as a Chaplain. This happened and Reverend White began service in on the Western Front in France where he reputedly used to celebrate the Eucharist in the trenches. His portable altar and sacred vessels are preserved in a vitrine in the sanctuary of his old church in Albany and chalice is held by the Forbes (NSW) RSL. When Reverend White returned to Australia in 1919 he served for some time in Victorian and NSW parishes and after Forbes, in 1927/28, he was appointed relieving Rector of the St John’s Church in Albany. There he began the practice every Anzac Day of celebrating a requiem Mass for the fallen very early in the morning. After celebrating Mass, he would lead the congregation to the shore and had a wreath cast on the waters in recollection of the fact that it was from there that the ANZACs were transported to Egypt for training.
It was a coincidence that the starting point of the AIF convoys should now become his parish. It is thought to be the memory of his first Dawn Service for the departing soldiers many years earlier and his experiences overseas, combined with the overwhelming cost of lives and injuries, which inspired him to honour permanently the valiant men, both living and the dead, who had joined the fight for the Allied cause. “Albany”, he is quoted to have said, “was the last sight of land these ANZAC troops saw after leaving Australian shores and some of them never returned. We should hold a service (here) at the first light of dawn each Anzac Day to commemorate them”.
It has been said that on Anzac Day he came to hold the first Commemorative Dawn Service. As the sun was rising, a man in a small dinghy cast a wreath into King George Sound while Reverend White, with a band of about 20 men gathered round him on the summit of nearby Mount Clarence, silently watched the wreath floating out to sea. He then quietly recited the words:
“As the sun rises and goeth down, we will remember them”.
All present were deeply moved and news of the Ceremony soon spread throughout Australia; and the various Returned Service Communities came to emulate the Ceremony.
Eventually, Reverend White was transferred from Albany to serve other congregations, first in South Australia, then Broken Hill where he built a church, then later at Forbes NSW. In his retirement from parish life, he moved to Herberton where he became Chaplain of an Anglican convent. Soon after his arrival in Herberton he died (26 September 1954) and was buried modestly and anonymously as ‘A Priest’.
Footnotes:
[1] John A Moses & George F Davis, Anzac Day Origins: Canon DJ Garland and Trans-Tasman Commemoration, Barton Books, 2013, Chapter 4, Page 79.
[2] Darling Downs Gazette: 24 April 1919, Page 6 (“ANZAC DAY. OBSERVANCE IN TOOWOOMBA. The Fourth Anniversary of Anzac Day will be commemorated in Toowoomba on Friday. Services will be held in all churches in the morning. In the Roman Catholic Churches, will commence at 7 a.m. and in the other churches at 11 a.m.” (Note: Dawn actually occurred at 6:13 am))
[3] Unknown author.
[4] Captain (Chaplain) Arthur Ernest White, BA University of Leeds, enlisted 17 Mar 1916, Chaplian 44 Bn, embarked ex-Freemantle 31 May 1916 (Suvic), appointment terminated 26 Feb 1918; born England 27 Aug 1883 – died Herberton Queensland 26 Sept 1954.
[5] Emails and discussions, Terrett/John Moses (priest), Professorial Associate, St Mark’s National Theological Centre, Barton, ACT: 25 July 2014
[6] Note: Reverend White was not in Albany, WA in 1923, he did not return to Albany until 1927/28.
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Reverend White’s memory was honoured by a stained glass window (a centre piece with two side panels) which was fitted in the All Soul’s Church at Wirrinya, a small farming community near Forbes. Members of the parish built the church and fitted the windows which are referred to as the ‘The Dawn Service Window’, as their tribute to Reverend White’s service to Australia. Although the church no longer exists, the windows were removed and are now installed in the cloister at St John’s the Evangelist Anglican Church, Forbes.
Dawn Service Window, All Souls' Church, Wirrinya near Forbes, NSW. In memory of Reverend Arthur Ernest White. Photo courtesy: Major Les Terrett, Project Officer, Australian Army History Unit.
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