The ANZAC day march of 1916 was the only parade allowed in London during the First World War. Australian troops were the only troops allowed to march through that city and that year in London the ANZAC took over, briefly.

Thanks to Michael McKernan and Peter Stanley for their wonderful book "ANZAC Day - Seventy years on." Most of the information for this article came from that book.

ANZAC day is one of Australia's national days, and it remains a day that many Australians identify with - even as the old diggers fade away.

ANZAC Day has evolved over the years. Very few of those at home in 1916 on the first anniversary would have made much the day. Of course there were no troops to cheer. Churchmen organised some commemorative services and to these were added, no doubt, many private, personal recollections. In London the ANZAC took over, briefly. The Australian high commission planned an elaborate celebration which included a march of Australian troops through the heart of the capital and culminating in a service at Westminster Abbey attended by the King and Queen. Newspapers encouraged Londoners to turn out in large numbers to give the Australians a heroes' welcome and asked women to bring flowers to throw at the troops. The success of the march rewarded these exhortations. So great was the crush of the crowd that the ANZAC were unable to march in formation but walked in groups, acknowledging the affection and applause.

At the Abbey, 2000 Australians gave full voice to the hymn 'For all the Saints who from their labours rest', bringing tears to the eyes of many in the congregation. There was more than a hint of 'swank' in the Australian parade, as if the ANZAC had performed so much better than other allied soldiers. The landing was an event of enormous significance in Australia, but for older nations, whose history over the years tells of wars and campaigns above all else, Gallipoli represented little more than another short and bloody adventure.

In the later war years ANZAC day was kept up by the Australians within their own units, marked usually by a church parade and a special dinner. Troops of other nations too, wanted to share the day with the Australians as W.E. Dexter, the chaplain, recorded in his diary. He had come across two Tommies (British soldiers) walking in Bapaume on ANZAC Day 1917, as drunk as could be. Dexter told the men to go home to bed: "Excuse him, sir", one of them said, "he's been keeping up ANZAC". "It seems to bid fair", Dexter predicted, "to become a universal excuse for a bust". At home the day continued to be marked by church services and school commemorations and, as War memorials began to be built even as the war continued, there were a few wreath-laying ceremonies.

Australian troops returned to no great victory parades, partly because they came back so irregularly during 1919 and 1920. Also because of the influenza pandemic of early to mid 1919 which stopped people mixing together in large numbers. ANZAC Day was commemorated by units and associations privately, rather than in a major public way in the early twenties.

Slowly though, the ex-soldiers began to perceive a need for an institutionalised reunion as they inevitably began to drift apart. A tour of Australia by their best loved commander, General Birdwood, brought matters to a head and some traditions began to emerge. There was considerable rather silly argument about whether the day should be a holiday, and if so, whether it should be 'wet' or 'dry'. Would remembrance grow or be demeaned by alcohol? Eventually the wowsers won, except that the ex-diggers were freed of all restraints, and by the 1950's ANZAC Day was as lifeless as Good Friday without the prospect of the Easter holidays to make up for it. Before long a march of returned men became the focus of ANZAC Day. Usually the men were in civilian clothes, although some turned out in their old uniforms, particularly in the early days. Most wore their campaign medals and decorations. They marched not en-masse but in their AIF groupings because their first loyalty had always been to their battalion or section. They created banners to identify each unit, decorating them with their colour patches and battle honours, and these banners became a feature of the march, allowing onlookers to work out who was who. In those days and for some people still, Australian military history was folk history and everyone, even those unrelated to a battalion, knew of its exploits. You would hear people say as a battalion marched by, 'Ah! the Xth. They were mauled at Mouquet Farm - Only 430 men out of 1000 answered the roll call after 3 days fighting. But so and so won the VC and the battalion also included...'
The point of the march, in Sydney or the bush, was to gather all the returned men together and to draw them to one central spot, a shrine or memorial, for a service of commemoration.

    The original ANZAC have have all gone, but they will never be forgotten.

The celebration continues to change and evolve but it still retains a great significance for many millions of Australians of all generations and now diverse ethnic backgrounds, with Poles and other Europeans and the Vietnamese proud to march beside the diggers.

Australians will continue to remember that first ANZAC Day in dawn services and other commemorative events. Let us hope too, that they will never forget what Australians endured and achieved in France and Belgium, the Middle east, New Guinea and the Islands, Malaya, Borneo, Indonesia, Korea and Vietnam. Let us hope that they will reflect on the futility and horror of war and vow each ANZAC Day that there should be no more of it.

Remembrance Day - Was originally observed as "Armistice Day", being the end of the "Great War" (WWI) and the signing of the Armistice. Following the end of the Second World War, King George VI directed that the 11 November be also set aside for tributes to be paid to the lives lost in World War I and World War II. In Australia, where the major observance is carried out on ANZAC Day, Australia has continued to promote the theme of Remembrance by maintaining the observance of two minutes silence at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month.