As Australians around the country commemorate ANZAC Day, the occasion holds extra significance for several of our Queensland Firebirds.
Members of the Purple Family paid their respects from their driveways by lighting up the dawn, with players reflecting on their own personal connection to the ANZAC legacy.
Gabi Simpson, along with defenders Tara Hinchliffe and Rudi Ellis, all have family who served in military combat across several wars and conflicts.
Gabi’s grandparents John and Sheila Simpson (nee Graham) both served during the Second World War in Europe and the Pacific respectively.
John Simpson was a Medical Officer of the British Navy throughout World War II and was involved in several major campaigns including the evacuation of British Forces from Dunkirk in 1940, and the D-Day landings at Normandy in France in 1944.
Then Sheila Graham, Gabi’s grandmother was an officer in the Red Cross Field Force, providing support to the Australian Army during their conflict in Papua New Guinea, as well as the occupation Forces in Japan at the conclusion of the War.
Similarly, Rudi’s great grandparents also both served during the Second World War. Bill Hudson was a wing commander in the Air Force who spent five months as a Prisoner of War after crashing behind enemy lines in Burma, an experienced he detailed in his book The Rats of Rangoon.
Upon his release he returned to his pre-war job as a journalist with The Sun and was immediately deployed to Borneo as a war correspondent.
It was there that he first met Rudi’s great grandmother Audrey Gillett, who was serving as a nurse having previously been a member of the first female class of physiotherapists to graduate from The University of Queensland.
Tara’s great grandfather, Lieutenant Clarence McDougall, served across both the First and Second World Wars.
Lieutenant McDougall landed at Gallipoli in May of 1915 as part of the 2nd light horse Regiment and, despite being wounded twice in the line of duty, re-joined his battalion to serve at the Western Front.
He was awarded the Military Cross in 1917 and continued to serve through until World War II, where he was stationed in Brisbane.
The Queensland Firebirds encourage their broad purple family across the state join in the commemoration, marking this special occasion from their own driveways at dawn.
Wherever we are, however we can, we will remember them.
Lest we forget.
