Do you need some help?
Put your tie on.
There you go.
Meet Henry “Corky” Caldwell, a World War Two veteran who last month turned 100 years old.
This year’s ANZAC Day was shaping up to be a very special one for Corky until the
Australian Government cancelled all parades and gatherings because of COVID-19.
There you go, put the strap under
It’s very important.
I’ve been going to it ever since the war finished.
I’ve been going to ANZAC Day ceremonies.
We used to start off at about four o’clock in the morning and go through to about
ten or eleven o’clock at night.
I know we used to get into trouble from the wives for playing up all day.
It means a lot.
He looks forward to ANZAC Day, every year, almost more than anything else.
He likes to do his march.
He likes to lay his wreath on behalf of his brothers.
All his granddaughters, grandsons come from Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane to celebrate with him.
So, he was fairly gutted when ANZAC Day wasn't going to happen this year.
Suzanne shared Corky’s disappointment in a post on Facebook.
Within a day I had about 500 replies.
And within two days I had two and a half thousand replies.
So since then, Dad's received many, many, many cards from people all over Australia thanking
him for his service, stating how gutted they all are on behalf of Dad, and what could they do.
One of the people who responded to the Facebook post is Phil Heesch who owns a world war two Jeep.
A mate of mine in Wollongong via another mate in Darwin, believe it or not, rang me and
said that there was a very disappointed old digger in Grafton that wanted a ride in a
jeep because ANZAC Day was cancelled.
Turns out that it's the same guy, Corky, that I take every year in our parade in Grafton
Phil offered to give Corky his own early, socially-distanced ANZAC parade
in the streets of Grafton.
Corky enlisted in 1941 when he was 21 years old.
All the Australian troops were going away and I felt it was the thing to do.
An auto electrician by trade, he was assigned to an army unit of engineers and within a
month he was shipped out to the Middle East and stationed
in an ordnance workshop behind the lines.
We were working about 18 hours a day on ambulances and tanks that had been hit.
They still had pieces of people in them and we had to clean them out, get them out.
Between battles, Corky armed with his Kodak pocket camera, captured the exotic world around him.
Oh yeah, I’ve got dozens and dozens of photos evil of all the pyramids.
Well, I climbed up the first one.
Used to ride camels around them.
It was a homing place for the troops.
They used to all go out and see the sphinx.
Yeah, I’ve got a lot of photos in there.
Towards the end of the war Corky was stationed in Darwin and started writing letters to a
high school girlfriend.
Two years after he came home, Corky and Gloria became husband and wife.
Yeah, the best thing that ever happened to me.
The end of the war was not the end of Corky’s service to his community.
He became a serial volunteer.
I was in every organisation around the place.
I joined the fire brigade in Grafton.
I was 35 years in that.
Then the Ulmarra shire asked me to take over the bush fire brigades.
I had 15 years of running the bush fire brigades.
I was a life member of the show society.
I coached some of the high school hockey teams which I knew nothing about.
In 75 years Corky has never missed an ANZAC Day.
And while this private parade is early, he does get his moment at the Cenotaph.
Thank you – lest we forget.
It sort of gets you a bit, doesn’t it?
When you go out to the cenotaph.
I lay a wreath for my brothers and it gets you a bit.
He did morph into ANZAC mode because he was remembering his brothers, his wife who's just
passed away and all his mates from the war.
I think it was very special yep.
I think he has a wonderful day, a wonderful day.