Letter: Respect the fallen

Lawrence Hargrave Reserve, Kings Cross, should not be demolished by Sydney Council if works are to obliterate the Memorial erected in June 2005 to those who sacrificed their lives serving Australia (“Remembering Kings Cross Style,” November 18).

This memorial, now being registered, includes a brass plaque set into a concrete wall while the important garden bed surrounds include Rosemary.

Rosemary is a widely-used symbol of loyalty handed out by Legacy and the RSL on Remembrance Day: it has particular poignancy for Australians because it flowers naturally on the Gallipoli peninsular, where Lawrence Hargrave’s only son, Geoffrey, died in war.

Any new garden design should respect the past for our future. Lest we forget.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted:
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables at home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond the oceans’ foam.

From The Fallen, Laurence Binyon 1914

Chips
President,
Kings Cross Bikers Social And Welfare Club