AUSTRALIAN EMBASSY ATHENS
PRESS RELEASE
Australian Veterans award outstanding Cretan students
The Ambassador
of Australia Jenny Bloomfield hosted an event at the Australian Residence for
the presentation of annual awards by the Returned and Services League of
Australia to outstanding students from Crete ,
to honour the shared sacrifice of the two nations during the Battle of Crete of
May 1941.
The awards were
presented to the students by Brigadier John Sheldrick OAM (Retd), Chairman of
National Trustees of the Returned and Services League of Australia, responsible
for the RSL and the 6th Division Australian Hellenic Educational Memorial
Trust. The Chief of the Hellenic Defence
Forces, General Michael Kostarakos, presented the Star of Merit and Honour to
Brigadier Sheldrick, who accepted it on behalf of the Returned and Services
League of Australia.
Congratulating
this year's winners, Ambassador Bloomfield said that the RSL annual awards
honoured the timeless bonds forged between the two countries and expressed
Australians' ongoing gratitude to the people of Crete .
The Ambassador
said, "Seventy-one years after the Battle of Crete, its message of
solidarity and friendship remains alive today. During these
difficult times, Australia
stands by Greece Greece
The ceremony
was attended by Deputy Minister for Administrative Reform Mr Manoussos
Voloudakis, Members of the Hellenic Parliament, the former Greek Ambassador to
Australia Mr Alexis Christopoulos, the Vice Governors of Chania and Rethymno,
His Eminence Bishop Irineos, defence representatives, representatives of
veteran associations and members of the Australian-Greek community in Greece.
