Unveiling of World War Two Honour Roll at the United Service Club on Anzac Day 2105

Distinguished representatives of the Armed Forces and services organisations, Club members and guests.  I am particularly pleased to be here today, both as a long-standing Club member and as Club Patron; to be here on this the most significant day in the Club’s calendar.

We are all so privileged to be commemorating today the courage and sacrifice which have always informed the contemporary Australian psyche, and to be doing so one hundred years on.

Much has been said of that Anzac anniversary over recent days, weeks and months, including by me, as your Governor.

This year also marks another military anniversary, an anniversary particularly relevant to today’s ceremony in the Club. Twenty fifteen is the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War Two – an appropriate year in which to unveil a World War Two Honour Board recognising members of the club who gave their lives in that conflict.

And on the subject of anniversaries, I note that it is ninety one years since one of my predecessors, the thirteenth Governor of Queensland, the Right Honourable Lieutenant Colonel Sir Matthew Nathan, unveiled the club’s World War One Honour Roll. That occurred on 13 August 1924. Sir Matthew Nathan, by the way, was apparently a very effective Governor, described – admittedly by his sister-in-law, as an “adored and admired Governor”. But back to the task in hand!

The unveiling of this honour board marks the completion of a long and complex research project undertaken by the Club.

I acknowledge the sterling commitment of Past President Colonel Dennis Scanlan, who, with the support of the Club’s History Interest Group, including Lieutenant Colonel Chris Furlong, Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Maitland and Brigadier Rod Hamilton, compiled this roll.

It is a magnificent effort, and has resulted in a remarkable tablet of Queenslanders and Club members. These were people of commitment and courage. They did not seek recognition, but they certainly warrant it.

On this centenary of the landings of the Anzac Force on the Gallipoli Peninsula, it is appropriate to draw attention to one of those named on this Honour Roll, someone who played a particularly important role in the Gallipoli campaign – General Sir Cyril Brudenell Bingham White. General White served in that campaign as Chief of Staff to Major General Bridges, the Commander of the First Division, Australian Imperial Force. Though surviving the first war, General White was subsequently killed in a military aircraft accident in Australia in 1940. He will now ever be remembered through this memorial.    

I again pay tribute to Dennis Scanlan, the driving force in preparing the memorial. I thank Dennis, and Gwenda, for their generosity in donating the Roll of Honour to the Club. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am immensely privileged, now, in my capacity as the 26^th Governor of Queensland, to unveil ‘The United Services Club World War Two Roll of Honour’.