War veterans and Weymouth and Portland residents gathered to remember Australian and New Zealand soldiers on Anzac Day.

The Anzac Memorial Service is held every year in Weymouth to commemorate the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps stationed here during the First World War.

Attendees said the service had its biggest turnout in its eleven year history.

Wreathes were laid at the Anzac Memorial on the seafront by, among others, Deputy Mayor Kevin Brookes and representatives from Australia and New Zealand.

The representatives were Commander Rob Elphick of the Royal Australian Navy and Lieutenant Robert Nesbit of New Zealand High Commission.

Standard bearers lowered their flags and a trumpet sounded the Last Post to begin a minute’s silence to remember the sacrifice of the Anzacs, who came to Weymouth after fighting at Gallipoli in 1915.

During the war, hotels along the seafront were converted into hospitals, which Anzac soldiers went to recover from their physical and mental scars and return to service.

Thousands of Australian and New Zealand volunteer servicemen passed through camps and hospitals in Dorset during the First World War.

Ninety Anzacs died in Weymouth and lie buried in war graves in Weymouth.

Cllr Brookes, who laid the first wreath on behalf of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council residents, said: “Having served in the army for over 16 years, it is our duty not to forget or allow their memories to be forgotten.

“Weymouth is very good at supporting remembrance and these sorts of events.”

He added this was the best attended Anzac Memorial Service he could remember.

Jess Nagel, former mayor of Weymouth and Portland, who has attended the memorial service for years, agreed: “This is the biggest turnout since the inception of the memorial.”

Derek Julian, 82, who fought in the Korean War and whose father was an Anzac who was shot and wounded in France, said: “I came in memory of my father and the Anzacs. I think Weymouth deserves a pat on the back – it has had good attendance.”

Les Ames, former Portland mayor, was another of the wreath layers and was one of the people who campaigned for the Anzac Memorial to be built.

The memorial was unveiled on the 90th anniversary of the arrival of the Anzacs in Weymouth on June 1, 2005.

He said: “My father was at Gallipoli and I did it for him you see. He went from Weymouth to the Somme – that’s why I started all of this.”

“He was very seriously gassed and came back to England very seriously injured. He wasn’t expect to live but he survived.”

He campaigned as President of the Weymouth and Portland Resident’s Association along with Alan Quartermaine, Jim Gearing and Alvin Hopper.

Lynwood Newman, 67, a standard bearer representing the Weymouth Royal Naval Association branch who was in the Vietnam War, said: “It is good to remember the sacrifices of the Anzac because our history begins to fade years later unless we keep it alive.”