This ANZAC Day will be particularly sombre for many members of the Returned and Services League of Australia, following the deaths of two veterans in the floods that swept through the small town of Dungog, in the NSW Hunter Valley earlier this week.
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Brian Wilson, a 72-year-old Vietnam veteran, and Colin Webb, a former National Serviceman aged 79, were members of the Dungog sub-Branch of the RSL.
“We know that both Brian and Colin were active in the veteran community and would have been planning to stand alongside their comrades tomorrow (Saturday) to pay their respects on Anzac Day,” said Mr Rod White, NSW State President of the League.
“It is a tragedy that these two men should find themselves helpless in the face of a monstrous and unpredictable flood, after having given their younger years in the service of our nation.
“I cannot recall us having lost two members in such circumstances, and I know all members of the RSL join me in expressing our deepest regret to the families of Brian and Colin.
We also extend our sympathies to the family of Robyn McDonald, the third person to die in the Dungog flood.”
Mr White said he understood Brian Wilson’s family had recovered his war service medals and they would be worn by a friend at the Anzac Day service.
Mr Wilson had served with the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, in Vietnam in 1968-69 and was described by Dungog RSL sub-Branch secretary Ross Lovegrove as “a decent bloke, a good bloke.”
Mr Webb had fulfilled his National Service duties in the 1950s and has been remembered by friends as a religious man who did anything he could for the community.
Mr White said both men would be in RSL members’ thoughts this Anzac Day.