Australia Marks Remembrance Day as 11 First World War Soldiers Are Identified

Wednesday 11 November 2026More than a century after their deaths, 11 soldiers have been named, and Australians paused at services across the country.

Featured image: Photo by Thennicke (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative image of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Eleven soldiers named

The Government formally identified 11 Australian soldiers who died in the First World War, more than a century after their deaths, on Remembrance Day. One of them is Lieutenant Andrew Anderson, the great-uncle of Acting Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles. Lieutenant Anderson was killed in the Battle of Menin Road near Ypres in 1917, after surviving earlier battles including Pozières, Mouquet Farm and Bullecourt, SBS News reported. He is buried at Hooge Crater Cemetery in Belgium.

Mr Marles said a Scottish reverend found Lieutenant Anderson’s case and wrote to the Australian Army, which triggered the investigation. He described the work as the painstaking matching of records and eyewitness accounts, followed by the recovery of the body after the war, and said 11 identifications was a relatively large number compared with previous years.

Services across the country

At the National War Memorial service in Canberra, RSL National President Peter Tinley recited the oath. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, travelling to the COP31 climate conference in Türkiye, laid a wreath at Changi Chapel in Singapore, noting that about 15,000 Australians were interned at Changi. Many were later sent to work on the Burma-Siam Railway, among them Tom Uren, a mentor to Mr Albanese, the ABC reported.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor issued a statement honouring serving and fallen defence personnel.

What happens next

The sources do not say what steps follow for the 11 identified soldiers. Mr Albanese continued his travel to COP31 in Türkiye.

More from this day: News Today: 11 November 2026, Australia and World Headlines