Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1914–1917

Transcription

Well this is an exciting and very important day not only for Australia but also for the people of Euroa and for the Burton family themselves. The Victoria Cross was awarded to Alexander Stewart Burton on the 9th of April, 1915, for an act of extraordinary courage and bravery. Along with Tubbs and Dunstan he was given this Victoria Cross for extraordinary courage... in the battle of Lone Pine... where the Turks were involved in a very serious counter-attack and over the years, the Victoria Cross, I understand from the Burton family was in a drawer of the family shop in Euroa and then recently, a few years ago, Mr Baker, a remarkable Australian, generosity of spirit and also with a curious mind, having bought the Victory Medal, which quite rightly was also awarded posthumously to Mr Burton, he then traced down the origins of this medal and was able to find the Burton family in Euroa and here today we are very privileged at the Australian War Memorial to bring back into the Hall of Valour, alongside Alexander Stewart Burton's Victoria Cross, the Victory Medal. This is a remarkably important find.  It is the kind of thing we encourage all Australians to be thinking about particularly as we come up to the Centenary of the First World War and I'm sure that the Burton family, I'm certainly sure that Mr Baker, would agree if you're watching this, if you're reading about this,  then go and have a look in your attic, have a look in that old box or those drawers, where your great-great uncles or great-grandfather's memorabilia from the First World War might be, or look in your mantlepiece or your display cabinet and that medal that you have,  or some other piece of military memorabilia may be of immense interest to and importance to our country, Australia.  At the Australian War Memorial we have many experts,  we have great expertise, that can help you find your history and that medal that you have, that you put out in a garage sale, for goodness sake, might actually have immense value not just monetary value but more importantly historical, heritage value in terms of the pride we have in our nation and those men and women, who gave us this legacy. Increasingly, what is happening we are having young Australians, who are proud of and interested in our military history but who don't understand what they've inherited from their families, bringing stuff in or it's turning up on Ebay or garage sales or some form of moving it on, who don't realise just how important  what they have is to us as Australians. So Mr Baker, he's obviously a very special man because he got the Victory Medal and then he worked very hard, a bit of a kind of a bit of a curiosity doing some research to find out, well who does it come from, who did it belong to and who was it awarded to?  This is a very important thing because what it means now that not only the Burton family themselves, and Burton's descendants  are able to come to the Australian War Memorial and see this medal exhibited with his Victoria Cross but so too can all Australians. And whenever you give something to the Australian War Memorial, you know it's going to be kept safely and proudly for ever and if you ever want to come and see it or your family or members of the public want to come and see it you can at any time you want. And the other thing I just say to Australians  is for the Centenary of the First World War,  we will be building a travelling exhibition, which will travel throughout many parts of Australia and one of the things we are looking at is a kind of an Antique Roadshow so get your stuff ready because in a couple of years we'll be coming to you.