Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Raising voices for their heroes

byEmilie Ng
24 April 2015 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA
Gallipoli choir

Anzac tribute: Students from St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace and All Hallows’ School prepare for their performance on the world stage.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Gallipoli choir
Anzac tribute: Students from St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace and All Hallows’ School prepare for their performance on the world stage.

By Emilie Ng

BEFORE sunlight breaks in Gallipoli on April 25, 34 young Queenslanders will let out their first note in a moving tribute to Australia’s First World War heroes and heroines.

Students and alumni from two Brisbane Catholic schools, St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace and All Hallows’ School, flew into Turkey one week before Anzac Day to prepare for their performance on the world stage.

The Terrace-All Hallows’ Gallipoli Choir was the only group chosen to sing at Gallipoli for the centenary commemorations, which will also feature the Australian Army Band and a performance with Australian musician Lior.

The choir was expected to perform at five separate memorial events all before 11am on Anzac Day in Gallipoli.

Fourteen young St Joseph’s College graduates fought in Gallipoli in the 9th Battalion, but seven died while on service, never returning to their families back home in Brisbane.

Knowing young men once played on the school’s current handball courts gave acting culture director Matt Cocking goosebumps.

Mr Cocking said the memory of Terrace’s own Anzacs would be on the lips of 17 Year 12 students who were handpicked to perform in the choir.

“We’re sending 17 boys to go and sing, leaving the same soil here, and landing on the same soil, there, as the 14 boys who left Terrace and fought in the war,” he said.

Choir member and Year 12 student Brendan Moran will also honour a family member who at one stage took command of the 9th Battalion.

Related Stories

Taking a look inside Second World War chaplaincy pack

All Hallows’ students helping Queenslanders with disability to bridge a connectivity gap

Sister of Mercy joins the list of Queensland Greats

The 17 year old learnt in Gallipoli two years ago that his great-great uncle Richard Henry Walsh, a devout Catholic, was in the rank of major during the war.

Major Walsh was in his 40s, married with three children, when he enlisted in the AIF to become what his daughter called “a real Anzac”.

He was mentioned in dispatches during a battle in June 1915 for having “commanded his company though twice wounded until his company was withdrawn”.

The company had gone out with 80 men and returned with only six.

Major Walsh took command of the 9th Battalion on September 9, but illness meant he returned to Australia after six months and was ordered to train soldiers at Enoggera until the war ended. 

His family eventually became a regular parishioners at St Benedict’s Church, East Brisbane.

He died on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1949.

At his funeral, Archbishop James Duhig, who was a close family friend, preached about the heroic man, and said “his name and memory will be honored for generations to come”.

His great-great nephew, Mr Moran could not agree more with the former Brisbane archbishop.

“Gallipoli is moving,” Mr Moran said.

“I remember standing and looking at the graves, and realising the guys there are eternally my age. They called the war and these young men rushed off.

“To be able to spend time where I know people my age and a relative stood is moving.”

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Deepening faith journey

Next Post

Ready to sleep rough

Emilie Ng

Emilie Ng is a Brisbane-based journalist for The Catholic Leader.

Related Posts

Taking a look inside Second World War chaplaincy pack
QLD

Taking a look inside Second World War chaplaincy pack

25 April 2022
All Hallows’ students helping Queenslanders with disability to bridge a connectivity gap
QLD

All Hallows’ students helping Queenslanders with disability to bridge a connectivity gap

8 April 2022
News

Sister of Mercy joins the list of Queensland Greats

9 June 2021
Next Post

Ready to sleep rough

Synod family

Listening not speaking

Bible series

'God's first question' sparks major challenge

Popular News

  • Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Christian Brothers’ community mourn the passing of Brother Tony White

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Vatican

All Catholics invited to pray rosary for peace with Pope Francis next Tuesday

by Staff writers
27 May 2022
0

By Catholic News Agency THE Vatican is inviting Catholics to join Pope Francis in praying the rosary...

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

27 May 2022
Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

26 May 2022
Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

26 May 2022
Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

26 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping