Prominent and not so well known World War I figures from the Canberra district were remembered at a special Centenary of Anzac tribute at the National Library on Sunday night.
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More than 400 people from the region, including the first commandant of Duntroon, Major General William Throsby Bridges, served country and empire in the war to end all wars.
General Bridges, who was killed at Gallipoli and is buried at Duntroon, was one of more than 60 who gave their lives.
Conducted under the imprimatur of the Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, Canberra's Anzac Centenary Tribute was a massive undertaking involving Canberra's Symphony Orchestra, The Federation Guard and the combined army, navy and air force bands.
The evening opened with a Beating Retreat ceremony which was followed by a tribute, in words and images, to some of those who served.
Among the 25 images featured was a poignant shot of Australian nurses outside their quarters on the hospital island of Lemnos in 1915.
One of the nurses pictured, Patricia Blundell, came to Canberra as the nurse at Duntroon in October 1914. She joined the Australian Auxiliary Nursing Service in May 1915 and was posted to Lemnos where the wounded from Gallipoli were taken.
Her own health failed while she was working on the Western Front in 1917 and she was allowed to return to Australia on the Barunga.
Miss Blundell survived when the ship was sunk by a U-boat in the Bay of Biscay and eventually arrived home in one piece.
She died in Victoria in 1968 at the 88.
Also honoured were Lieutenant Bluey Thorne, who was killed at Gallipoli while peering over the trench parapet, and Major Tom Elliott.
The two men appeared in the same photo of a race at Duntroon in 1913. They were together when Lieutenant Thorne died. Major Elliott was later killed in France. He was only 22 years old and had been described as having the makings of "an Australian Kitchener".
The evening ended with a performance by the CSO of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, the Russian composer's triumphal paen to the defeat of Napoleon after he invaded Russia.
Despite its name, Beating Retreat is not an unplanned tactical withdrawal from the field of battle. It is one of the oldest ceremonials in the history of the British army, dating back to the times of James II, and was originally known as watch setting.
It was a signal, in walled cities and garrisons, the evening watch would soon commence and that those outside the fortifications should retire for the night.
Beating Retreat was first performed in Australia at Duntroon in 1968.
