Peace Day Kiama 1919
The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year has special significance because at this time, in 1918, the guns on the Western Front fell silent after more than four years of continuous warfare.
Originally known as Armistice Day, the name was changed to Remembrance Day after World War Two. In 1997, Governor-General Sir William Deane issued a proclamation formally declaring 11 November to be Remembrance Day, urging all Australians to remember those who died or suffered for Australia's cause in all wars and armed conflicts.
While WWI conflict ceased on Armistice Day in 1918, the Treaty of Versailles that formally ended the First World War was not signed until 28 June 1919. The 19th of July 1919 was declared Peace Day, the official day to celebrate the ending of the First World War throughout the British Empire. In Australia, the government decided to present 600,000 medals to NSW school children on 19 July 1919 to commemorate the end of the First World War.
However, even as the war was ending, the Spanish Influenza pandemic was sweeping across the world, infecting about a third of the planet’s population (approx. 500 million people) and killing an estimated 20-50 million people. In a population of 5 million Australians, around 2 million were infected by the Spanish Influenza and 15,000 died, which was equivalent to the number of soldiers that died each year of WWI in active service.
In early July 1919, the pandemic was still raging, and so the Mayor of Kiama called a meeting to discuss the upcoming Peace Day celebrations. After much discussion, it was decided to postpone Kiama's celebrations until 6 September 1919 in the hopes that the pandemic would be under control by then. As the date was established by the British and they were in their summer season, the Mayor reasoned that the postponement was appropriate as Australia was in the middle of winter and all the sickness that went with it, in addition to the Spanish Influenza. And so, in Kiama on 6 September 1919, the Peace Day procession left the Oddfellow’s Hall (where the Kiama Leagues Club now stands) at 1.30 pm, marched down Terralong Street and turned right into Manning Street.
It is perhaps significant that Peace Day, a day about victory and defeat, is no longer celebrated, whereas, more than a century on, Remembrance Day, a day to commemorate sacrifice, endures. Take a moment at 11 am to imagine what the ringing silence must have felt like on the battlefields in 1918 after so much terrible destruction. Lest we forget.
Private Alfred Clive Wooster, died of wounds 2 Nov 1919
Private Louis Stanley Kendall, killed in action 23 Oct 1917
Bombadier Ralph Alexander Colley, died of wounds 29 Sept 1918
