The public is invited to attend Northern Beaches Remembrance Day Memorial Services on Friday 11 November at 10.45am, to mark the 98th year since the end of World War I (1914-18).

Services will take place at:

  • Manly Dam War Memorial Park, King Street, Manly Vale (presented by Northern Beaches Council and the Manly Warringah War Memorial Park Remembrance Trust).
  • The Manly War Memorial, corner of The Corso and Belgrave Street (also commemorating 100 years of the Manly War Memorial).
  • Avalon RSL Sub Branch, Palm Beach RSL and the Pittwater RSL will also have services.

Remembrance Day commemorates the Armistice which formally ended World War I, the ceasefire taking effect at the eleventh hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918.

Council's Remembrance Day Memorial Services are civic occasions and all members of the community are invited to attend, followed by an opportunity for the general public to lay private tributes to those who suffered during war.

This year's ceremony at the Manly War Memorial will include a reading of John McCrae's moving poem 'In Flanders Field' by Olivia-James McKeown, a Year 12 student at Stella Maris College.

Northern Beaches vocalist Ella Freestone will perform 'Abide with Me' and 'Amazing Grace'.

Those attending are asked to be seated by 10.40am.

The Manly service takes place shortly after the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the Manly ANZAC War Memorial by Australia's then Governor General, Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson, on 14 October 1916.

Designed by Burcham Clamp and built of trachyte, the Manly War Memorial was the gift in 1916 of Mark Mitchell and his family. Their son, Alan David Mitchell, was among the earliest soldiers from Manly to die in the war.

Northern Beaches Council General Manager Mark Ferguson said commemorating Remembrance Day in 2016 was particularly poignant because it was one of the anniversaries that fell 100 years on from the Great War.

"The various actions which constituted the Battle of the Somme ultimately were among the most costly in history – a million soldiers killed or injured, including 23,000 Australians," Mr Ferguson said.

"Here on the Northern Beaches one in every six men who enlisted to serve abroad did not come home.

"Attending the Remembrance Day service is one little thing we can do to honour those brave Australians.

"We remember the fallen, those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and we honour them," he said.