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RSL SALUTE - FACT OR FICTION?

Part 2

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Email reply from Keith Rossi, RSL Historian
This email was in reply to Allan Tonkin's (RAR Assoc (Vic) President) forwarding of the preceding document.


From: Keith Rossi
Sent: Tuesday, 31 May 2011 3:57 PM
To: 'Allan Tonkin'
Cc: 'garyt.5rar@gmail.com'
Subject: RE: "I have often wondered"

Good afternoon Allan

It was perhaps fortunate that George Logan referred you to me as I am the one responsible for describing the "RSL Salute". Some years ago, about 2003 I think, the National Secretary of the RSL asked me if I was aware of an RSL salute. He had received an inquiry from a Sub-Branch I believe.

I responded that I was aware of an RSL salute and wrote the explanation that appears on the RSL of Australia web site except the final paragraph which my version said it was used when marching past or laying a wreath on a Cenotaph. A cenotaph being an empty tomb it means that the RSL Salute is a salute to those who have paid the supreme sacrifice.

It is not meant to be a salute to other persons or to a Reviewing Officer but a mark of respect to our departed comrades, the Honoured Dead.

How did I come to know about the RSL Salute? When I was a teenager, in the 1930's I watched the ANZAC Day marchers as they saluted the Cenotaph on the steps of Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. I noticed that many of them placed their hat or their hand over their medals. When I asked some of them why they did this they answered something like this, "They died before they got any medals so I am hiding mine". About 60 years later, Frank Bell then the Memorabilia Officer at ANZAC House Melbourne called me into the Library where our Librarian, a WWII veteran, showed me an Officers Handbook which had been issued to her husband who had been a British Officer in WWII. It included the description of the ceremony at Whitehall under the title "Remembrance Salute" or similar. The penny dropped - so that was what the WWI veterans were talking about when I inquired about the way they saluted the Cenotaph! So there it is. Perhaps the paragraph in the Officers Handbook was based on a myth but I think not.

Warren Bradd believes it is a myth and wants to start one of his own, i.e. that it is an American custom that we have copied. And I think he has misjudged the character of soldiers awarded the Victoria Cross if he believes they would not salute the honoured dead.

The British Legion did not exist in 1920. It came into existence in May 1921, the year of my birth. It absorbed the Officers' Association which had existed since 1917. Perhaps the Dedication of the Cenotaph is recorded in the annals of the Officers' Association.

Anyway, there it is. Take it or leave it.

Warm thoughts
Keith Rossi
RSL Historian

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THE PRICE OF TRUTH IS ETERNAL VIGILANCE
Submission by Warren Bradd, OAM. 7th July 2011
CPL C Coy 5 RAR 1969-70

The Remembrance Salute or the RSL Salute; as printed on the RSL National HQ site has many errors which can be picked up quite easily;
Unknown Soldier, this term was never used by the British, the correct term was Unknown Warrior.

Regimental Sargent Major (RSM) of the "Guard Regiment", this term has no meaning as they were called "The Brigade of Guards" or "The Guards Brigade". In the current British Order of Battle (ORBAT) they are called "The Guards Division".

RSM, decreed (ordered?) 100 VC winners, Officers and Other Ranks, representing the British Empire including the Chief mourner King George V to cover their medals with their hands. This does not happen in the highly disciplined British Army, or in any other army.

Salute, when passing a cenotaph or shrine on a ceremonial occasion the Eyes Right (or Left) is a Salute, no other action is required.

Hats, these were the fashion which most men adopted until about the 1970s, a few still wear them these days when attending ceremonies. When the hats were in fashion men removed them, as a mark of respect, and either held them on their chest or at their side, any covering of medals was purely accidental. The RSL Salute specifically mentions hands covering medals not hats, so the two cannot be misrepresented.

The Royal British Legion (TRBL), was formed in 1921, but by whom, the Germans? Of course not, it was formed by the Veterans who had marched the year before in the 1920 Armistice Day Parade and the Interrment of the Unknown Warrior.

Had they forgotten the brand new tradition of covering their medals with their hands? Did they forget to write it down? They must have forgotten all about it as they have no record or knowledge of it.

The Officers Association, this was formed immediately after the war, not 1917, and was given a Royal Charter in 1921. It was not absorbed by the TRBL but simply participates with it in fund raising; it remains a separate organization to this day dealing with the welfare of ex-serving British Officers of all Services. Awaiting information on Officers Handbook WW2.

British Officers Handbook WW2, the Imperial War Museum in London has no knowledge of British Officers Handbook WW2.

British Officers Handbook WW2, Received reply from IWM; no knowledge of "Officers Handbook WW2". National Army Museum; one book titled "British Army Handbook First World War 1914-1918" written in 2004. I have left an enquiry re 'Officers Handbook WW2". National Archives (UK); Military History section, no recognition of "Officers Handbook WW2" in search. Officers Association (UK); still awaiting enquiry re "Officers Handbook WW2".

The King, as already stated King George V was the Chief Mourner, his diary notes of that day are recorded on the IWM data base.
Nowhere does he mention the covering of medals with the hands.

Australian War Memorial (AWM), has no records of the RSL Salute.

Vetaffairs Newsletter dated June 2011, the photo on the front page shows the confusion created by the RSL Salute; the Veteran in the center is using the US Memorial Day Salute with his hand over his heart, not his medals, the Veteran behind him in a slouch hat is using a hand salute. The rest of the Veterans have removed their hats and simply stand to Attention, the Minister on the right is using the civilian method of placing the hat over the heart.

Questions, two simple questions have remained unanswered in all my correspondence, they are;
* Why is it that WW2 Veterans have no knowledge of the RSL Salute, and
* Why wasn't it reintroduced when Australia Interred her own Unknown Soldier in 1993?

References;
The RSL Salute, RSL National HQ website
The Unknown Warrior, data base search IWM; the Unknown Warrior (includes King George V diary entry)
The British Army, Guards Brigade, Guards Division; Wiki on Google
TRBL, Google
The Officers Association, Google
The Unknown Soldier, AWM

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Since receiving Warren (Jack) Bradd's original submission I had not, until 1st June 2011, been able to find any notation as to who or what organisation wrote the article. We now know that it was written by Keith Rossi, the RSL Historian, in 2003. In the text of "The Soul of a Nation" (Sir Phillip Gibbs) (see link below) there is no reference to medals being covered in a salute to the "Unknown Warrior". It did describe the "highly decorated and high military men (including many Victoria Cross winners)", not as they marched past the Cenotaph, but as they were assembled in Westminster Abbey, "Waiting, too, near his grave, were men of the Warrior's own kind."

Webmaster's Note: Warren 'Jack' Bradd served many years in the Army, including deployments with 3 RAR to Malaya/Borneo and then with 7 RAR in South Vientnam in 1967. He returned to Vietnam in 1969 to 1 ARU and then C Coy, 5 RAR. On the 5th Battalion's return to Australia, he remained and served with HQ AFV, 1 ARU and 8 RAR to complete his tour. Sadly Jack had been confined to a wheelcahir for many years and he passed away on 19 August 2016.

There various British Pathe newsreel films (see 2 links below) of the 1920 Interrment of the Unknown Warrior, that are available on the internet, the only salutes that are shown are of the traditional types. There is no evidence of any person giving a salute by covering their medals with their hand.

Gary Townsend.
Tiger Tales Editor


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