This year’s remembrance day at the Daylesford War Memorial was particularly poignant following the tragic deaths in front of the Royal Hotel only a week earlier. A large crowd of around 150 people attended on both sides of the Burke Square intersection.

It is now 105 years since the 11th of November 1918, the end of World War 2. Sixty thousand Australians died fighting a war 14,000 kilometres from home.

In addressing the commemoration, President of the local RSL, Ian Tinetti reminded the assembled community of the tragedy of war and the importance of rising above division and conflict to prevent it in the future.

A number of community organisations including the police, Hepburn Shire, Catherine King and local schools laid wreaths in commemoration at the ceremony.

 

At the conclusion of the ceremony, Mr Tinetti led the community in a minutes silence to remember the victims of last week’s terrible traffic accident where 5 people including two children died across the road from the Daylesford War Memorial on the lawn in front of the Royal Hotel.

Private Michael Dowson

The Daylesford war memorial commemorates 145 people who died in war.  One of them is Private Michael Dowson.

Private Dowson was born at Sailor’s Hill, Daylesford, Victoria on 7th January, 1893. He was the son of James and Margaret Dowson.

He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) at Helena Vale, Western Australia on the 25th of September 1914 as a was single man who  worked as a minor. Private Dowson left Australia on the 22nd of December 1914 on the HMAT Ceramic with the 16th Infantry Battalion “A” Company and then joined the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli Peninsula on 12th April, 1915.

Private Dowson was wounded in action at Gallipoli with a gunshot or shrapnel  to the right knee. He was transferred to England on the on the Hospital Ship Goorkha on the 3rd of May 1915. Private Dowson died on the 22nd of May at the 2nd Western General Hospital, Manchester, Lancashire England from complications associated with his injury. He was 22 years old. He was buried in the Southern Cemetery, Manchester, Lancashire, England where 16 other Australian World War 1 Graves are located.