Agathering of 100 honoured the service of four late war veterans from one local family at the 2024 Remembrance Day service at Southend yesterday.


The service was arranged by the Southend Progress Association and was staged by the war memorial and flagpoles at the Western Beach car park.


The four ex-service personnel were from the Galwey family and all had close ties to Southend and Rendelsham.


Late family patriarch William Galwey saw active service overseas during World War I.


Two of his sons also enlisted during World War II with the Australian Imperial Force.


Stan and Alec Galwey served with the Field Ambulance Unit of Australian Army Medical Corps in Egypt, Palestine, New Guinea and Borneo between 1942 and 1946.


Youngest son Lionel was born in 1928 and thus was too young for World War II.


However, he spent around 20 years in the Regular Army and served in the Korean War.


A snapshot of the lives of the four soldiers was provided by Galwey descendant Linda Bowering.


The number of Galwey descendants present numbered around 30 and included one from Canberra.


Their descendants took an active part in the service along with Rendelsham Primary School students.


There were traditional Remembrance Day observances like the poem “In Flanders Fields”, wreath laying, a minute’s silence, Welcome to Country and lowering and raising of the Australian and Indigenous flags.


Vocalist/guitarist Adam Hamilton, a great grandson of late Rendelsham war veteran Sydney Stewart Menzies Smith, provided music at the Southend service.


Meanwhile, there was a significant turn-out at this time of hundreds of students and community members at the Millicent Cross of Sacrifice.


Wattle Range Mayor Des Noll spoke of the historic origins of the Red Poppy flower as a symbol of remembrance.


Similar commemorations were held across the globe to mark 106 years since the end of World War I.