THE Anzac spirit has been a part of the Australian psyche for almost 100 years.
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While 2014 marks a century since the start of the First World War, 2015 will mark the centennial of Anzac Day, commemorating the landing of Australian soldiers at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915.
Thousands gathered to remember the countless individuals who performed remarkable acts of bravery for king and country.
People like Temporary Corporal Alexander Henry Buckley VC, a 24-year-old farmer born at Warren.
He found himself on the bloody battlefield of the Somme in September 1918 where his battalion was charged with the task of taking down the town of Péronne.
They got through the first line of German trenches but met a nest of machine guns.
Young Buckley charged forward, shot four of the post’s occupants and took 22 prisoners.
According to his posthumous Victoria Cross citation, he was killed by machine-gun fire while crossing a footbridge into the town.
His citation praised his “great initiative, resource and courage”, as well as his “self-sacrificing devotion to duty”. He was buried in the war cemetery at Péronne.
He was not alone.
Corporal Arthur Charles Hall VC was working on his father’s properties near Nyngan before he enlisted in 1916.
He, too, was at Péronne and rushed a machine-gun post, shot four of the occupants, and captured nine others, along with two machine-guns.
The next day he rescued a wounded comrade. Throughout all this, he “showed utter disregard (for the enemy) and inspired confidence in all,” his citation reads.
He was a lieutenant in the Second World War before returning to his sheep and cattle property near Coolabah. He died at Nyngan in 1978.
Private Patrick Joseph Bugden VC, born at South Gundurimba, near Lismore, was a 21-year-old hotelkeeper on the North Coast before enlisting.
He was posthumously awarded the VC for outstanding bravery during three days in September 1917.
Twice, he led small parties under heavy machine-gun fire, to silence the enemy posts.
Five times he rescued wounded men trapped by intense shelling and machine-gun fire.
He rescued an Australian corporal, who had been taken prisoner, by shooting and bayoneting the enemy. He fought until he was killed.
Private John Hamilton VC was born in Orange and was working as a butcher near Lithgow before he enlisted in September 1914.
He took part in the Gallipoli landing and during the battle of Lone Pine, when the Turks launched a violent assault, Hamilton and several other men were ordered out of the trenches to halt the enemy advance.
For six hours he lay in the open, protected only by a few sandbags, telling those in the trenches where to throw their bombs, while keeping up constant sniper fire.
For his “coolness and daring”, Hamilton received the VC.
He later served in France and eventually made second lieutenant after the Armistice.
During the Second World War he made captain in the army.
Hamilton died in 1961.
