General News
20 April, 2026
Lest We Forget
With ANZAC Day on April 25 and the growing interest among Australians in supporting this day and remembering, it is a chance for us to reflect on the thousands of Australians who have been involved in theatres of War.
These individuals together created and grew the legend that has become synonymous with creating our National identity.
The War Memorial in Rainbow has the names of 59 men who listed Rainbow as their hometown.
While those who served and those who died, were people of various ages and occupations, from Rainbow they are listed mainly as Farmers, Farm hands, Labourers, a Motor Mechanic.
One individual listed on the Rainbow Memorial was somewhat unusual.
This was Captain Harold WARDALE-GREENWOOD.
Born in England and enlisting in Caulfield, he listed Rainbow as his hometown.
A Presbyterian Minister, he enlisted in the Chaplain Division 1 of the 2nd AIF.
At 36, he was the youngest Chaplain of the Second World War.
According to the Australian War Memorial, he went to Malaya in the first convoy in February, 1941, as chaplain to the 2/10 Battalion. (NSW), with whom he stayed to the end.
During the campaign, he saw more actual fighting than any other chaplain of the denomination.
He was captured eventually and went through many trials as a Japanese Prisoner of War, surviving the forced march to Ranau in mid-1945.
Harold survived the march only to die a month before the Japanese surrender in August.
Men of faith went through the same trials as other soldiers and brought hope and light even in the midst of despair.
For the first three major conflicts in particular,, the Boer War and First and Second World Wars that Australia went out under the motto, “God, King and Country”.
They knew and understood Christian values, even if they didn’t all practice those values and faith for themselves.
As we remember on ANZAC Day, as we reflect on who we are as Australians, let us also reflect on what helped us to shape our country, our values, and to reap that legacy.
Lest We Forget.