If Forbes residents tune in to 60 Minutes this Sunday evening, they may see a few familiar faces.
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The story of the Drane family and their Anzac tradition will air this Sunday night on the current affairs program, which begins at 8.30pm.
A 60 Minutes film crew were in Forbes on Australia Day this year filming for the story about the tradition of naming Drane sons with the middle name ‘Anzac’, which was started by World War I veteran Thomas Edward Drane.
When he returned to Forbes from the war, Tom wrote to the government for special permission to use Anzac as the middle name for his son and official records state that Tom was the first person to use the name for personal use, giving his three sons the middle name Anzac - George Anzac Drane, Albert Edward Anzac Drane and Thomas Anzac Drane.
Andrew Drane, T. E. Drane’s great grandson, began the tradition again, naming his son Leo Anzac Drane. His cousins then also decided to carry on the family tradition and now there are a total of five great great grandsons with the middle name Anzac; Leo Anzac Drane, Archie Anzac Thomas, Sam Anzac Drane, Hugh Anzac McAnally and Bill Anzac Giblin.
Andrew said 60 Minutes found out about the family tradition and the story of T. E. Drane and contacted him about doing a special story in the lead up to the centenary of Anzac Day.
60 Minutes reporter Michael Usher spent the Australia Day long weekend in Forbes with his film crew interviewing Andrew and getting shots of the extended family at the Diggers Swimming Club event, which is also of significance to the Dranes with the feature race being the Tom Drane Memorial Cup, named after Thomas Anzac Drane.
The story will be part of 60 Minutes’ special Anzac feature.