By IANS,
New Delhi : Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s wife Therese Rein laid a wreath at the India Gate memorial to the “unknown soldier” Thursday, becoming first foreign female dignitary not holding an office to do so, an official said here.
“Both the prime minister (Kevin Rudd) and his wife laid a wreath at the memorial as is the tradition in Australia. Moreover, the name of an Australian nursing assistant is inscribed on the monument,” said an official.
The memorial has the name of Sister Latetia, an Australian nursing officer, who died of enteric disease on November 11, 1916.
“Born at Victoria in Australia, Sister Latetia was attached to Australian General Hospital No. 2 during the war. She was buried in Quetta, Pakistan,” the official said.
The Amar Jawan Jyoti, the memorial at the India Gate, was set up to pay homage to the Indian soldiers who died in the 1971 India-Pakistan war.
The majestic India Gate was constructed by the then British rulers in the memory of the soldiers who laid down their life in the first world war (1914-1918). Names of 13,516 men and women have been inscribed on the memorial.