There was an added level of sadness to Tuesday’s Anzac Day commemoration in Bemboka.
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Only the night before, the town’s last-remaining World War II veteran, Cyril James “Bill” Allen, died at the age of 92.
Mr Allen was honoured with a special tribute to begin the morning’s Anzac Day proceedings at the Bemboka cenotaph, where it’s estimated around 150 turned out in one of the bigger crowds seen for the annual service.
In a Bega District News article in 2016, Mr Allen said he recalled enlisting in June 1942, two weeks before his 18th birthday as it was “the right thing to do”.
He served as a butcher in Bradfield Park and then in an airfield construction and repair unit in a posting to Darwin.
He remained in Darwin until the end of the war and was discharged in the late 1940s, after which he returned to Bemboka and took over the town’s butcher shop with his brother Vic.
Mr Allen went on to run the shop on his own – operating it for 36 years.
At Tuesday’s Anzac Day service, emcee Roger Jones said he had only the previous day seen Mr Allen sitting on his front veranda, waving and saying “see you tomorrow”.
After going to bed he felt unwell and was taken by ambulance to the South East Regional Hospital, but died shortly after.
He is survived by his son Wayne and the family of his brother Fred.