Anzac Day Parade.

This is the guest of honour being driven to the Papanui RSA as part of the Anzac Parade this morning. I have been trying to find out more about him and having little success, but he was awarded the Anzac Medal which is awarded by the RSA to one recipient each year, in memory of a soldier Richard Henderson who used a donkey called Murphy, to run around under heavy fire and retrieve injured soldiers and bring them in for treatment durign the First World War. The Anzac Medal is in recognition of the characteristics of a person who holds selfless quiet heroism as a trait.
I need to blip now, but I will try and find out more about this man later today, as the celebrations continue all day, and we happen to live next door.
Out of interest the local parade was well over 1000 people this year, and I think that it has almost doubled in size over the 3 years we have been attending while living in Christchurch. Interesting social phenomenon, as the soldiers are mostly in the very much geriatric age group who attend, and we dont have a very large or terribly visible defence force in this country. We have been lucky historically to be situated a the "bottom of the world" yet have a bizaare history also of having lost more soldiers per head of population than any other nation almost exclusively fighting in other countries.
This photo looks great in large.