Hundreds of community members paused in Mount Gambier on Thursday as the city stopped to honour and remember the courage and sacrifice of those who have served our country and those who gave their life in service to our nation on military and peacekeeping operations.

Mount Gambier Community RSL president Bob Sandow attended various events to mark Remembrance Day.

“Remembrance Day was well supported by our community and the schools in the region,” he said.

“The service at the Soldiers’ Memorial Garden in Vansittart Park went as planned and we then spoke at three different schools.

“We went to Mount Gambier High School, Tenison and McDonald Park.”

Mr Sandow presented the annual Tenison Flyers’ award from the RSL to honour four local boys who attended Tension Woods College and all died flying for their country.

“The schools do their own thing in most cases and we go in support of them and all the ceremonies at the schools went excellently,” he said.

“In most cases, the students’ grandfathers and their parents’ uncles and aunts went to war back in those days and we want them to remember to remember.”

Mr Sandow spoke in Vansittart Park at the memorial service about Salvation Army chaplain William McKenzie who enlisted in the army as a chaplain in WWI.

“He went to Gallipoli with 2500 on the ship … and when it became time for the boys to do a charge at Gallipoli, he wanted to go on their initial charge, but they told him he could not go because he was a non-combatant who did not carry a gun, so he led them with a spade,” Mr Sandow said.

“It’s reported that he buried 700 of our men. He then went with our men across to Egypt then back into France, into some terrible places, then back to Australia.

“When he arrived there were 7000 people to greet him and he was awarded the military medal, which was very unusual for a chaplain to receive such an honour.

“He then went to China and spent three years in China … and came back to Australia and died at the age of 47. He was a man that was a chaplain, then became a fighter and then went back to becoming a chaplain.

“I was trying to get the message across that not all heroes carry guns.

“There are doctors, nurses, stretcher bearers and all those sorts of people that we would not be able to operate a military without. It is not just the people holding the guns.”