It is now twenty years since the Tomb was installed & I
was surprised to receive a call from Canberra early in September, just after
our exhibition opened at Cronulla Central. To celebrate the 20th
anniversary, the National War Memorial Directors had planned to have the words
of the eulogy that was delivered by the then PM, Paul Keating, cast in
bronze & placed at the entrance to
the Hall of Memory, also to have some excerpts from the eulogy carved into the
Tomb surround. These words would replace those carved twenty years ago on the
front & some that had been added to the back some years later. Somehow the
present staff had managed to track down myself & the sculptor who had
carved original inscriptions hoping that we would collaborate once more.
I duly received the text & two simulated photographs of
how it might look when completed. So it was back to working out the size &
laying down strips of paper on the floor ; 900mm high letters looked better
than the 800mm height suggested , so that was the height I used . This time I
did not have to have the architect’s approval & the drawings went straight
to the sculptor.
The staff even tracked down the quarry which had supplied
the marble & fortunately some of the same stone was still available so the
replacement squares would match the original. Probably the sculptor had carved
both inscriptions & the one on the front had been installed when Veteran’s
Affairs & others with some political clout, suddenly remembered the reason
why the words “KNOWN UNTO GOD” had been
carved on the back of the surround & demanded they not be touched as they were traditionally displayed on the
back of crosses on the old battlefields & were sacred to all memories. So
they remain. Unfortunately whoever designed “KNOWN TO GOD” appears not to have
much skill in lettering & I have recommended that it be recut.
Olivia
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