Doorstop, Australian War Memorial, Canberra

SUBJECTS: Remembrance Day

JOURNALIST: Tell us about your great-uncle?

MARLES: It's been an extraordinary journey over the last few weeks, and one which was completely unexpected for me. A few weeks ago, I received a call from the Chief of the Army to tell me that one of my relatives, Lieutenant Andrew Anderson, had been identified after more than a century of being in the Hooge Crater Cemetery under a headstone of an unknown soldier. I mean, it's an incredible story about the work which is being undertaken to more than a century later identify those who are still unknown, and about a third of those who died in the First World War are unknown. And it's also, though, enabled me to learn about my great uncle. I, along with my cousins and second cousins, are his closest living relative. He didn't have any children himself, but he was 19 when he enlisted. That required him to have the consent of his parents, my great grandparents. On his file is a letter in their hand, giving that consent, which feels very poignant when you read it. Over a period of a few years, he was at Gallipoli, he was at Pozieres, where he was mentioned in dispatches, and then he lost his life in the Battle of Menin Road on the 20th of September 1917. But what strikes me is that he rose through the ranks really quickly. He went to officer training school back in the UK, became a second lieutenant and then was promoted to being a lieutenant 13 days before he died. And amidst the horror that he unquestionably would have seen, there must have been also a sense of achievement, accomplishment, making a difference. And I think that does speak to me in terms of my experience with those who wear our nation's uniform, about how they feel that this is a life of service where people are making a difference. And so, for me, I guess on this Remembrance Day and thinking about my great uncle and his story, it brings home even closer the significance of this day and remembering the 103,000 Australians who have lost their lives wearing our nation's uniform, and we obviously owe them a debt of gratitude, of course, as we do to those who wear that uniform today.

JOURNALIST: You were really quite emotional when you pinned the poppy on his name. How does finding this out affect you, both personally, but as Defence Minister as well?

MARLES: Well, I think for me, it does feel emotional. I've got, well, four kids: two sons, two daughters. They're of a similar age to what he was. He was 23 when he died, and you know, there's a sense in which those who died in the First World War were young people whose lives were taken away from them. He didn't get to have kids of his own or family. We have the photos of him, and his face is bright and optimistic, and a sense of what could have been. And the one memory, you know, my sisters and I have is of my grandmother, his sister, having his photo in her house, and that was a pretty sacred thing. You know, it wasn't to be touched, and that's all we have. And I guess you know, it feels poignant in terms of having children who are the same age, trying to imagine them in that circumstance. But I'm also really aware that what I'm responsible for in this role is the serving men and women, most of whom are of that age, who are doing really significant things for our country, but making a really significant step to wear that uniform with everything that entails, where 103,000 Australians who have worn that uniform have never taken it off, and there's a weight in that, a responsibility in that, which I think, I feel, but I think people who have been in my shoes previously have always felt.

JOURNALIST: How important is it that his name will be known for future generations?

MARLES: Yeah, I feel obviously very proud of him. You know, looking through his record, which I hadn't done until the last couple of weeks, having been given this opportunity, and you know, seeing his achievement, and then see the photo of him looking through the ages at us, you know, I feel very proud of him, and very proud of the fact that his photo is there for others to see, and that his name does live. And I think right now his name is on the Menin Gate, which is where names of unknown soldiers are. As I understand the process from here, his headstone will be changed to have his name on it, so there'll be a specific place that we and our family can go to remember him, and his name will come off the Menin Gate. And I think you know that I very much look forward to at some point, I hope in the future visiting his gravesite, and that's going to be very meaningful for me, but I know for all of his descendants that'll be the case.

ENDS