Today is ANZAC Day.
You may not celebrate it — or even know about it.
But Megan Lott and Karen Hossain sure do.
Both women moved to Westport in the summer of 2016. They met at a newcomers’ coffee at their kids’ Kings Highway Elementary School.
Megan Lott and Karen Hossain
Driving around their new hometown, they noticed the historical plaque at the Compo Road South/Post Road East traffic island.
It commemorates the April 25, 1777 landing of British troops at Compo Beach. They marched to Danbury, and burned an arsenal there. Three days later, on their way back, they fought a fierce battle with local patriots, on Compo Hill.
The cannons at the beach — installed and dedicated in 1910 — are an iconic reminder of that historic encounter.
(Photo/Wendy Crowther)
The date resonated with the women.
Megan is from New Zealand. Karen (who returned home last August) is Australian. Down Under, April 25 is ANZAC Day.
The acronym stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The holiday — celebrated annually there, honoring the men and women who served and died for their countries — is similar in spirit to Memorial Day and Veterans Day here.
Megan says “it is a deeply emotional and reflective occasion, ingrained in the cultures of both nations.”
ANZAC Day dates back to the bloody World War I Gallipoli campaign in Turkey, when over 8,000 Australians and 2,700 New Zealanders lost their lives. It became a symbol of the bravery, endurance and sacrifice of ANZAC forces.
Battle of Gallipoli
The first ANZAC Day was April 25, 1916, one year after the landing. It has since evolved to a broader remembrance of all military personnel, in all wars.
Dawn services include a minute of silence, the playing of “The Last Post” (a military funeral bugle call, and wreath-laying. Parades feature veterans, current military personnel, and scouting and school groups. Poppies symbolize all who have died.
But ANZAC Day is about much more than remembering soldiers, Megan says. “It’s about national identity and values such as mateship, resilience, and sacrifice. The spirit of the ANZACs — their camaraderie, endurance, and willingness to fight for each other and their countries — has become an essential part of the culture in both nations.”
Living in Westport, Karen and Megan had no dawn services. So early each ANZAC Day they met to remember, together, all those who died, and all those who serve now: Australians, New Zealanders and Americans.
They chose a very appropriate spot: the Compo Beach cannons.
That’s where — on that same April 25, 138 years before Gallipoli — the British landed. And where 4 days later they fled back to their ships, after meeting patriots’ muskets of resistance at nearby Compo Hill.
For Karen, ANZAC Day is particularly poignant. She lost her brother, after 7 tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. An Australian commando, he worked alongside US Special Forces and DEA contingents.
As the sun rose on ANZAC Day in Westport, Karen placed his replica medals on the cannons.
Carefully, next to them, she laid other replica medals: her father’s, from Vietnam.
And her grandfather’s, from World War II.
It was ANZAC Day. She remembered.
Australian service medals, at the Compo cannons.
