A Vietnam veteran and the vice president of the Newcastle RSL, Mr Finney, the master of ceremonies at Civic Park for the official Anzac Day memorial in Newcastle on Tuesday, lead the crowd through the day’s proceedings flawlessly.

That is, until it became time to call on two-year-old Astor MacGregor to lay a wreath.

Then, his voice cracked, and for just a moment it seemed like he might not make it through. 

In December, Mr Finney’s daughter, Emma MacGregor, died unexpectedly at the age of 35. Astor is her daughter and his granddaughter. On Tuesday she wore the medals of Mr Finney’s father, who served in the Second World War. 

“It was a particularly emotional one for me, but I got through it, or I tried,” he said.

“My heart, yeah, I don’t know how to explain it.”

Clutching a can of Victoria Bitter after a more informal service at the Vietnam memorial, he said the growing importance of Anzac Day felt particularly important after years of neglect to that conflict’s history.  

“Standing on the stage, seeing all the young faces, it’s really encouraging,” he said.

“Lots of people didn’t like the Vietnam War at all, or course, we were called baby killers and had red paint thrown at us, all that stuff, it was difficult. 

“So a lot of veterans went back in their shells and wouldn’t talk about it.” 

Astor laid the wreath with Kristy Fayle, a close family friend and the daughter of Ken Fayle, president of the Newcastle RSL and also a Vietnam veteran. 

Ms Fayle, from Mount Hutton, wore the medals of her great grandfather, who served in the First World War. Her brother wore the medals of their grandfather, who served in the Second World War.

“It’s a very important day for all of us, it always has been for as long as I can remember,” she said.

“You look at the marchers and the groups of older guys are becoming smaller and smaller so it’s just really important to keep it alive and remember what did happen and keep their memories alive.”

The service came at the end of the traditional Anzac Day march down Hunter Street to Civic Park.

Thousands of on-lookers lined the street as veterans, their families and service men and women marched.

Among the newest entrants in the march were members of the Newcastle Greek-Macedonian Brotherhood.

Secretary Adam Lepidis said the group marched “on behalf of the ones who cannot be here”.

16-year-old Keirki Kassas, from Adamstown marched with her father, said she was “a bit nervous” about her first Anzac Day march, but said “we used to do this kind of thing all the time in Greece”.

Michael Wood, an Acting Sergeant who served in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers with the British Army in Kenya in the 1950s, marched with his daughter Jessica Moulder and grandson Eli, 3, from Garden Suburb.

“We march for the men who can’t,” he said.

Ms Moulder said she thought it was important that her son grow up understanding other people’s sacrifices.

“We want to continue the traditional and the legacy and remember the sacrifice so many men and women have made,” she said.

“I think he knows that he knows that he’s doing something for his Papa.”