In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. IN FLANDERS FIELDS BY JOHN MCCRAE Today the Club recognises the unique contribution in war and peace of Australia’s own Vera Deakin and, through her, the Australian Red Cross. The authoritative Australian Dictionary of Biography credits Vera with “a greater influence than any other single person on the development of the Australian Red Cross”. Vera Deakin was twenty-three when she took ship for Cairo in 1915 to seek work with the Red Cross while Australian soldiers were fighting at Gallipoli. There she became secretary of the
Portrait of Mrs Thomas Walter White OBE (nee Vera Deakin) by Robert Hofmann,1946. Lady White is wearing the uniform of the Victorian Divisional Commandant of the Australian Red Cross (ARC). (Australian War Memorial)
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