Denison College Bathurst High campus captain Eve Currie was among those who spoke during the Anzac Day Commemoration Service.

“My family, like many others, has stories and connections to Australia’s involvement in war,” she began her speech to an estimated crowd of 5000 people.

“Most of our stories are about the men, men who served as part of the Navy in Gallipoli, fought in the light horse brigade in Egypt and who were prisoners of war in Changi.”

The story she shared with the Anzac Day crowds was one from her own family, one about the women who stayed home.

Eve’s grandmother was born in Scotland in 1940, amid World War II, not long after there was an air raid warning in her village.

“My great grandmother told the story of how she, with her brand new baby, hid under their kitchen table in darkness,” Eve said.

“She listened to the planes fly overhead thinking ‘what kind of world have I brought this precious little girl into’.”

Eve also shared the wartime stories of her great aunties in Bathurst.

“Their fathers Richard Currie and Alonzo Everard Elliot both served in the First World War. Alonzo served again in the Second World War, while Richard was in an essential service role which required him to move to Sydney,” she said.

“They left behind wives and young children. Alonzo for six years. Six years of compromise for his family, six years of enduring hardships, six years of doing without a husband, without a father.”

Eve said the harsh lessons learnt during these times of war changed her family.

“I have grown up surrounded by these strong women whom I admire so much,” she said.

“They are the women who defined a generation, and defined the role of women within a changing society, forever.”

For Anzac Day, Eve said she would reflect on the women in her own family who “grew up without husbands, without fathers, in a world of fear, uncertainty and compromise”.

“Peace and freedom are preciously and precariously entwined.

“Knowledge of our history and our stories, combined with our vigilance, our voice and our action is the only way to protect it.”