Sophie Represents Penrhos at City of South Perth ANZAC Service
This past weekend, Penrhos was honoured to continue its long-standing connection with the City of South Perth's ANZAC Day commemorations, where Year 11 student, Sophie, was selected to represent the College at the local ceremony.
As part of this important community tradition, Sophie delivered a thoughtful and deeply reflective address, honouring the sacrifice of those who served while challenging us to consider our shared responsibility in preserving peace today.
Her words captured the true spirit of ANZAC Day: remembrance, gratitude and a commitment to the future.
“... the greatest way to honour those who served is not just to remember the wars they were in, but by striving every single day to create the world they fought for.”
We are so proud to share Sophie’s full speech below.
Good morning ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests,
My name is Sophie Crabtree-Lambasa, and I am a year 11 student at Penrhos College.
We gather here today, on Australian soil, to commemorate the Australian and New Zealand citizens that served not only in the First World War, but all conflicts, and the sacrifices they made for the peace we experience in our nations today.
This morning marks the 111-year anniversary of the ANZAC troops arriving in Gallipoli, April 25th, 1915, on a morning not unlike this – many of the soldiers barely older than I am now.
111 years ago, over 16,000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers landed on what is now known as ANZAC Cove on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. By that night, 2,000 of them had been killed. Over the next three years, in the remainder of the First World War, that number rose to 61,721.
These numbers are not just statistics. Each one represents the life of a young Australian, not unlike myself or many others here this morning. A young Australian with hopes, dreams, a future and people who loved them.
These lives were cut short by war.
It is through remembering this loss – not simply looking around at our lives today – that we can begin to understand the true value of peace.
Peace is not just the absence of war, but the ability for us to get out of bed every morning, without fear. The ability for us all to gather here this morning, and the ability to look back and honour those 61,721 brave soldiers who did not die in vain.
Peace is often found in the quiet moments of life. But that is not to say it can be taken for granted. Peace is not something that can last on its own. Peace is fragile. It can be tested, challenged and lost.
Albert Einstein once said: “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”
It begs the question, what if peace was treated as a skill set rather than a saying? With the opportunity to navigate our issues, peace wouldn’t be perceived as an absence of death; it would be the presence of a purpose.
Maintaining the peace that the ANZACs fought for has never been so important. The past is not just history; it is a warning. The peace we value so deeply today has come at the cost of conflict. Though the sacrifices made in Gallipoli were beyond great, a true measure of them is what we choose to do afterwards.
We now live in a world where global tensions are higher than they have been since the end of the Second World War, and the stability Australia so greatly relies upon can never be assumed to last forever.
Peace requires effort, it requires understanding, and most importantly – peace requires each and every one of us to wake up and chose the path that leads to a more peaceful world.
Because the greatest way to honour those who served is not just to remember the wars they were in, but by striving every single day to create the world they fought for.
Thank you
We congratulate Sophie on delivering such a poised and powerful speech, and thank her for representing Penrhos with such insight and maturity.
