CROWDS gathered on Weymouth seafront as the town held its Anzac Day service to honour former Australian and New Zealand personnel - for the first time since 2019.

Weymouth Town Council hosted the event on Monday, April 25, with mayor Colin Huckle, councillors, representatives from ex-service organisations and associations, standard-bearers, and Commander Luke Miller representing the Australian High Commission all in attendance.

Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) Day, held on April 25, marks the anniversary of the start of the First World War Gallipoli landings, and is a national day of remembrance for both countries to honour and remember former service personnel.

To mark the occasion in Weymouth a service was held outside the Anzac Memorial on the seafront, opposite the Hotel Prince Regent, and was carried out by Reverend Deacon Geoffrey Carey; the mayor’s chaplain.

The mayor laid a wreath alongside members of ex-service organisations.

One of the wreaths had even been sent all the way from New Zealand, especially for the service which members of the public were invited to attend.

Cllr Colin Huckle, Mayor of Weymouth Town Council said: “Weymouth Town Council is honoured to have the opportunity to host this important Anzac Day service at the Anzac Memorial on Weymouth seafront.

“The event offers the forces family and wider community a chance to commemorate and honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army who fought at Gallipoli during World War I.”

The service was the first to be conducted in-person on the seafront in the town since 2019, due to previous Covid-19 restrictions.

The Anzac Memorial on Weymouth seafront commemorates the thousands of Australian and New Zealand volunteer service personnel who passed through camps and hospitals in Dorset during the First World War between battles in the Middle East and those on the Western Front in Europe.

Thousands of Anzac troops died alongside British allies in the ill-fated 1915 campaign.

A three-sided monolith memorial was unveiled on Weymouth's seafront on June 1, 2005, 90 years after the first Australian and New Zealand Army Corps Troops arrived in Weymouth after action in Gallipoli in 1915.