Where past and present meet: Dawn at Gallipoli

Selected as a beach cemetery assistant by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA), Nathan Shingles – Cairns RSL Sub Branch President was ready to aid the Department whose focus was on supporting visitors, coordinating movements and helping to deliver the ANZAC Day services. 

Upon arriving, however, it didn’t take long before the significance of the place truly began to settle in. 

“What began as a role grounded in responsibility quickly became something far more personal,” Nathan says, reflecting on his own family’s connection. 

“My great uncle, Robert Edwin John Smith, was killed in action in August 1915 at Pope’s Hill. He was just 22. 

“Standing on that peninsula, knowing he had walked that same ground, shifted something in me. The distance between history and the present seemed to close.”

Before the dawn

Nathan worked closely with team leader, Tom Yans, a man with 40 years of service with DVA who brought a quiet professionalism to everything he did. 

“There was no need for instruction manuals or long explanations, Tom gave autonomy with mutual respect of service,” Nathan says.

“The way he engaged with visitors, the respect he showed at every opportunity, and the calm way he carried responsibility set the tone for all of us.”

Supporting the commemorations were the local visitor services team, university students who assisted with translation and guided visitors through the experience as they burst with pride.

While working in the background were members of the Turkish Gendarmerie, whose presence was steady and respectful throughout. 

“Learning that their origins trace back to the Ottoman “Subaşı” later known as the Zaptiye, added a deeper historical continuity to everything unfolding around us,” Nathan shares.

During rehearsals, Nathan was given an unexpected role. 

“I stepped in to act as the Chief of the Australian Defence Force, running through the official address at Lone Pine Cemetery and rehearsing the wreath laying sequence at Anzac Cove,” he remembers. 

It was a technical exercise, requiring precise timing and coordinated movement, all in preparation for the live broadcast at the ANZAC commemorative site.

Each movement was deliberate. Each pause intentional. 

“We repeated the process until it was exact. It gave me a new appreciation for the level of detail behind what Australians at home experience as a seamless and deeply moving ceremony.”

The connections made in history

It was also during this time that Nathan began to form a strong connection with two fellow veterans – Jake Bostock, also an RSL Queensland member, and Tyson Taylor, an RSL Victoria member.

“Both Jake and Tyson shared something deeply significant – both their families could be traced back to the original landings on ANZAC Day in 1915,” he says.

Jake shared an emotional “in case of death” letter which was sent home by his ancestor James Bostock who, on 25 April 1915, was one of the 21 men of the 9th Battalion who were in the first boat to touch the beach at Gallipoli. 

While Tyson’s forebear, Charles Crapper landed at Anzac Cove on the same day as a member of the 14th Infantry Battalion – which later became known as ‘Jacka’s Mob’.

“The sharing of these stories created an unspoken bond, one grounded in shared history, service and understanding,” Nathan says. 

The quiet morning 

The stillness before first light. The quiet anticipation among thousands. The gradual rise of dawn over the peninsula. The morning of the ANZAC Day Dawn Service at Gallipoli is something that Nathan says will stay with him for the rest of life.  

“In that moment, everything felt connected, past and present, personal and collective. I found myself thinking of my great grand uncle, and of the thousands of others who stood where I stood, under vastly different circumstances,” he shares. 

“At one point, I glanced toward Jake and Tyson. No words were exchanged; none were needed. It was a simple acknowledgement, a shared understanding. 

“That, to me, is what camaraderie looks like.”