June 26, 2026
"It’s been an exciting time for Legacy, as my counterpart in Brisbane has just been announced as the new inaugural CEO of the national Veteran Wellbeing Agency. This is a fantastic appointment for Legacy and for the wider veteran community – like me, Brendan Cox is a veteran with lived experience, and with over 10 years working as a CEO post his transition from Defence. He knows what holistic support to veterans and families means and will be a strong advocate for our cause in Canberra.
His departure, and the recent departure of the Sydney CEO, leaves me as the longest standing Legacy CEO! This made me reflect on why I joined Legacy and why I am such a strong supporter of veteran families.
In 2003, I left Germany with my entire Squadron to Kuwait, prior to invading Iraq during the war. I remember leaving our many partners, and kids, behind in our small British Army enclave in a village in Germany. We left at night, street lighting saw us all leaving our homes and walking to the nearby buses, in our uniforms and with all we needed for an unknown time, to take us to the airport.
My kids were 4 and 6 at the time and I couldn’t tell them where I was going (I didn’t quite know) or when I would be home (we had no idea how long the war would last as we were the first units to deploy). How could they understand?
I remember the professionalism of all our soldiers as we left, but also the faces of the many families we left behind on the doorsteps that cold winter evening, who would look after them, who would think of them whilst we were all away without access to any reliable communications. What if some of us didn’t come back?
Of course, Defence families are special, and they rallied together and looked after each other – no one complained. My wife and some of the other more experienced partners looked after the younger ones – they worked as an amazing team and sent newsletters to our soldiers to keep us all informed of news at home, to let us know they were OK. They even made sure that my younger soldiers, who weren’t married, were not excluded – they sent them letters and care packs – they cared for all of us, and each other, whilst we were away, they told us they were fine and no to worry, so we could focus on our mission. They had their own mission, and they weren’t going to let us down.
I often think these families deserve medals more than there serving partners – I was just doing my job, but they were doing so much more that they never signed up to do. I remember speaking on a satellite phone for about 10 mins a week to my young kids – they just didn’t understand why their dad wasn’t coming home from work like normal dads do.
Legacy knows this story all too well – when things go well on war fighting operations the families reunite and recover, often stronger than ever, but when things go wrong these families need our support, they need care and compassion, they need to have folk who understand what they are having to cope with, and they need to know that someone will be there for them.
Legacy does this and has done this for over 100 years.
I was fortunate to join the Sydney team for their 100th anniversary this week, Melbourne is now in its 103rd year of supporting veteran widows, partners and children. What we do makes a difference and it matters.
We can only do this with the generous support from all our donors, and I thank you all for your kindness and compassion – we can, and do, change people’s lives in their time of need, and also in helping them to connect with others who have endured a similar loss or experience”.
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