For those Bathurst residents who gathered in the darkness on Tuesday morning outside the Carillon War Memorial for the Anzac Day dawn service, mateship is a notion they are very familiar with.

Mateship formed in the school yards of Bathurst, on sporting fields and in offices.

Yet as Bathurst RSL Sub Branch president David Mills reminded those in attendance at the service, mateship is also something which holds poignant meaning to all of Australia’s servicemen and women.

It is special to those who are currently serving, those who are veterans of conflicts past, and those who fell in battle.

“To be the kind of man who would give way when his mates were trusting in him would mean the rest of his life haunted by the knowledge that he had lacked the true grit to carry it through,” Mills said.

“This was a prospect that these men could not face. Life was very dear to them, but life was not worth living unless they could be be true to their ideal of Australian manhood but more importantly, be true to their mates.”

Mills quoted one SAS Sergeant who had served in Afghanistan who went as far as to say: “To let down your mates in combat would be worse than death.”

“That’s it, that’s the essence, you don’t let your mates down,” Mills said.

“The spirit of mates who have gone before us, who stand here with us, are here in our silent sentinel this morning. We commemorate our fallen, we honour their memories, their sacrifice and their service.”

As the crowd reflected on those qualities, the sacrifices that had been made, and will be made, for mates, they bowed their heads and in one voice, united, they made a vow.

“We will remember them.”