{"id":4231,"date":"2009-06-03T21:26:32","date_gmt":"2009-06-03T10:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/?p=4231"},"modified":"2009-06-03T21:26:32","modified_gmt":"2009-06-03T10:26:32","slug":"end-of-an-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=4231","title":{"rendered":"*End of an Era"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE LAST OF A GENERATION<\/strong><\/p>\n

Private John Ross \u2013 We will remember him<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Rising<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0The Minister for Veterans\u2019 Affairs, Alan Griffin, today expressed his sorrow at the passing of John \u2018Jack\u2019 Ross, the last remaining Australian to have served during the First World War.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mr Ross passed away at 3.30 am this morning in Bendigo. Mr Ross is survived by his daughter Peggy and son Robert and four grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Ross showed his willingness to serve Australia and her allies in what was an extremely tumultuous time in our history, and for that we are grateful,\u201d Mr Griffin said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWhile he did not travel overseas, he completed his training, ready for deployment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mr Ross was a clerk when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in January 1918.\u00a0 He trained at the Wireless Training School and was posted to the 1st (Depot) Battalion at Broadmeadows Camp in Victoria.\u00a0 At the time of his enlistment, he could not \u2013 of course \u2013 have known that the war would end in November.<\/p>\n

With the end of the war and the demobilisation of the Australian Imperial Force, Private Ross was discharged on Christmas Eve, 1918.\u00a0 He served his country again in the Second World War as a member of the Volunteer Defence Corps.<\/p>\n

In civilian life, Mr Ross worked for the Victorian Railways for more than 45 years and retired from the service in 1964.<\/p>\n

\u00a0On 9 July 1999, Mr Ross was presented with the 80th<\/sup> Anniversary Armistice Remembrance Medal<\/em>, Australia\u2019s first commemorative honour, marking the 80th<\/sup> anniversary of the end of the First World War.\u00a0 Mr Ross was also awarded the Centenary Medal, <\/em>in recognition of his contribution to Australian society.<\/p>\n

Mr Griffin said with the passing of Jack Ross, the last of the 417,000 Australians that served in the First World War was now gone.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cAlthough our living links to the First World War have been lost, we will continue to remember their heroic deeds and actions through the stories they have shared with us and through the legend that they created,\u201d Mr Griffin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt now falls to Australians everywhere to ensure that their memory is kept alive.\u00a0 We must ensure that their contribution to Australia\u2019s wartime history is passed on to future generations, so that their sacrifice is never forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

The Families and Friends of the First AIF <\/em>will continue to Keep The Memory Alive <\/strong>of \u00a0the Australian volunteers who served in the Great War through our\u00a0members who are “Dedicated to Digger Heritage”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lest We Forget<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

The Families and Friends of the First AIF<\/strong><\/em> thanks the Australian, UK and French governments for affording Australian and British soldiers \u2013 presently buried in mass graves at Pheasant Wood \u2013 dignified individual reburials in a new CWGC cemetery at Fromelles, and applauds Minister Snowdon and his British counterpart, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence and Minister for Veterans, Kevan Jones MP, for their joint decision to DNA test the remains at exhumation and use every reasonable method to attempt identification of each soldier.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE LAST OF A GENERATION Private John Ross \u2013 We will remember him \u00a0The Minister for Veterans\u2019 Affairs, Alan Griffin, today expressed his sorrow at the passing of John \u2018Jack\u2019 Ross, the last remaining Australian to have served during the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diggers-of-first-aif"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}