10 By the end of the war the Club had channelled tens of thousands of pounds into patriotic funds. That war dragged on, in Europe and the Middle East, until late 1918. It became the Great War, later the First World War, and it left the world changed forever. Australian deaths alone exceeded 60,000 servicemen and nurses, all of them volunteers. It was to honour them, and those who also served, that Anzac Day as a sombre national holiday was initiated. It is 110 years since Gallipoli. This year marks also the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, where our soldiers again fought in Europe and the Middle East, and in Africa, and in bitter battles in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific, where our sailors and aviators were in heroic action, with terrible losses, where thousands of service personnel became prisoners of war, enduring horrific conditions, and where our own shores came under attack. During that world war, it became a more urgent question as to whether the sport of racing should continue. It was in fact dramatically curtailed for much of the war, which stretched from September 1939 to August 1945. Many country and city meetings ceased, as did racing in South Australia for a time. Caulfield became a military training camp and its race meetings through to Patrobas’ 1915 Melbourne Cup pictured with Light Fingers’ 1965 Melbourne Cup.
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