ANZAC Day Dawn Service 2026

In London, 2,000 Australian soldiers marched past Westminster Abbey to mark the anniversary.

In Egypt, soldiers participated in a Sports Day. 

Here in Adelaide, the first anniversary of the Gallipoli landing was marked with commemoration events in Victoria Square, including entertainment by the Police band.

Trams and trains stopped for two minutes silence at 9.00am.

At Glenelg, the Cheer-up Society arranged a gathering at the Town Hall to honour returned soldiers from the area.

Later that evening, a service was held at St Peters Cathedral.[3]

Four months after the end of the Dardenelles Campaign, the loss of life was still having a  deep impact on the home front.  

Australians mourned the loss of young lives – 8,141 deaths in eight months of fighting at Gallipoli

Potential left unfulfilled, their dreams never realised, families left grieving.

A generation lost in the clash of fire and steel.

All were brothers in arms, many were brothers by blood.

Among the bothers who landed at Gallipoli were Charles John Tenison Woods and Douglas Griffin Tenison Woods.

The boys were two of twelve children born to Julian Edmund Tenison Woods and Alice Maude Douglas Woods.  

Julian Woods was a journalist and footballer of note, playing for the Kensington Club in 1877, before transferring to Norwood in its founding year – 1878 - where, remarkably, he played in four premiership teams despite the club’s records showing he only played 20 games.

Julian’s other claim to fame was that he was the nephew of Father Julian Tenison Woods, who, along with Saint Mary of the Cross Mackillop, founded the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart.

Douglas was born on 1890 in the Victorian town of Hamilton.  

Charles was born 1892 in the suburb of Melbourne suburb of South Yarra.   

After moving to Adelaide, the boys attended Christian Brothers College.

Like their Catholic faith, football also ran deep in the family.

On 2 May 1908, Charles, then only 16, made his League debut for West Adelaide against West Torrens at the Adelaide Oval in the opening round of the season.

He was the 206th player to pull on a West Adelaide jumper.

It was the start of a golden era for the club, although Charles would only play one more match for the red and blacks.

On 19 August 1914, two weeks after Australia joined the war, Charles who was then living in Shipsters Road, Kensington, and Douglas, who was living in nearby Kensington House, both enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force and became part of the 10th Battalion.

Another brother, Frederick James Tension Woods, enlisted with the AIF on 20 September 1915 and survived the war. 

Just like their great-uncle, the Woods boys responded to the call to serve something bigger than themselves.

They joined dozens of locals who lived in the streets close to where we stand.

Upon completing their basic training, on 20 October1914, the Charles and Douglas embarked on board the HMAT Ascanius for desert training in Egypt and a rendezvous with destiny.

While the brothers survived the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, war records revealed that Douglas was one of the last to see Private Brunel Nash alive that day.

According to Douglas:

“We advanced about 3 ½ miles by mid-day April 25th and got out of touch and came back. When we turned Nash was missing and never seen again. Quartermaster Sergeant JHF, Colby and Sergeant Beams both of A Company were with us at the time and might be able to give further information, but we all turned back together.”[4]

True to their faith, the Woods brothers joined other Catholic soldiers in celebrating Mass.

On one occasion, the Reverend D.F. McGrath described the service as a “unique experience – that of celebrating mass at Gallipoli right under the nozzle off the enemy’s guns.”[5]

Charles and Douglas Woods were safely evacuated from Gallipoli in December 1915, disembarking at Alexandria in Egypt on the 29th of that month.

On 27 March 1916, they left for France, landing in Marseilles in early April.

On 25 April 1916, the first anniversary of the Gallipoli landing, Charles was hospitalised with mumps and did not re-join his unit until almost a month later on 20 May,

By the northern summer of 1916, the war had reached a stalemate with the Allies and the Germans settled in their trenches on the Western Front.

On 23 June 1916, Douglas was seriously wounded in the back and thigh and was transported back to England to recover.

Exactly one month later, the Allies launched an offensive at Pozieres during the Battle of the Somme.

Captain Charles Bean filed a detailed account of the fighting with British Headquarters on the first day of the battle.

“After midnight a splendid night attack by the Australians took the greater portion of Pozieres. The attack, which was a complicated one, was carried out in several stages. After several days of steady, slow bombardment, our artillery shortly after dark increased to very heavy fire. Others were attacking besides the Australians, and the bombardment was spread over a fairly large front. I have never seen such a spectacle.”[6]

That day, Charles Woods was with a bombing party in the first attack and was hit by machine gun fire.

He was wounded in one arm and the left breast.

His subsequent movements after sustaining his wounds were reported in The Chronicle:

“After being hurt he crawled back into the trench,” wrote one of his comrades, “and then he walked to the dressing station. He would not allow the stretcher bearers to carry him, saying, “There are worse cases out there, I can walk, but some of those poor fellows can’t. Go and carry them.” That was an hour after he was hit. He had bandaged his wounds himself but was suffering from loss of blood. He arrived at the dressing station bleeding from haemorrhage, and died the same night. He was very popular in the battalion. He was very game, and whenever he was going out on a scouting or bombing expedition, there were always plenty of volunteers to go with him.”[7] 

The soldiers who got though the first day of the battle later recalled the Germans “shelled us like hell.”[8]

A Paris correspondent for a London newspaper reported the Australian troops “brilliantly distinguished themselves on the attack at Pozieres,” with the fight being as “as full of horrors as any incident of the war.”[9]

The Battle of Pozieres was a bloodbath.

In the first six days of fighting, the Australians suffered almost 3,500 casualties.

By the time the battle ended on 3 September, the number had climbed to 23,000 Australian casualties, including 6,800 dead.

One dying soldier at Pozieres asked Charles Bean, “Will they member me in Australia?”[10]

Yes Digger, we do remember you and we will remember them!

Years later, Bean would write the Pozieres ridge “is more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any place on earth.”[11]  

It was not long before news of Charles Woods’ death reached Australia.

On 15 August 1916, the Express and Telegraph published his Death Notice: “Died of wounds in France on 23 July, Charles Julian Tenison Woods, second son of J.E.T. Woods and A.M. Woods, of Stepney.”[12]

Charles Woods was buried at Daours Communal Cemetery Extension, France.

Douglas Woods survived the war and returned to Australia on 23 October 1918, almost three weeks before the Armistice.

On 14 February 1919 - Valentine’s Day – Douglas married Meta Franziska Juttner in Payneham and was discharged one week later.

During World War Two, he wore his nation’s uniform again, enlisting on 7 November 1942 to serve in the Australian Army Provost Corps (Military Police) for almost 14 months before being discharged with the rank of Captain on New Year’s Eve 1943.

Douglas Woods died on 9 October 1965 and is buried at Centennial Park Cemetery, Pasadena.

At 1.17am on 16 April, Charles Julian Tenison Woods’ name was projected onto the exterior of the Hall of Memory.

At 10.50pm on 30 April, Douglas Tension Woods’s name will be projected onto the exterior of the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial.

One hundred and eleven years on from the Gallipoli landing, we can see their names in dawn’s early light on this Soldier’s Memorial.

We honour e Woods brothers, their service and sacrifice and that of their ANZAC brothers in arms who survived in the Great War, all who served in subsequent wars and the men and women serving in the Australian Defence Force today. 

Lest We Forget.

[1] Sydney Morning Herald, 25 April 1916, p.5.

[2] The Advertiser, 25 April 1916, p. 5.

[3] The Advertiser, 25 April 1916, p. 5.

[4] Fraser Coast Military Trail: militarytrail.visitfrasercoast.com

[5] Southern Cross. 17 December 1915, p. 30.

[6] The Argus, 26 July 1916, p. 9.

[7] The Chronicle, 3 February 1917, p. 43.

[8] Sydney Mail, 2 August 1916, p, 6.

[9] Sydney Mail, 2 August 1916, p. 2.

[10] Australian War Memorial, Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files – 702 Private Brunel Nash /  1980406, viewed 11 May 2026

[11] Bean, C.E.W (1941), The Australian Imperial Force in France: 1916. Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918 Vol. III (12 ed.)

[12]  Express and Telegraph, 15 August 1916 p.1.