The Australian War Memorial dedicated its daily Last Post ceremony to Second Lieutenant Sharp on August 18.

This was also the 50^th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, in which he was killed, as well as Vietnam Veterans Day.

2Lt Sharp’s friend John O’Halloran, who grew up in Tamworth but now lives in WA, had also arranged a dinner that night in his mate’s name.

Mr O’Halloran said the ceremony was “spectacular”.

“There was a speech from Dr Brendan Nelson and a reading [about 2Lt Sharp’s life] done by Mark Donaldson VC, and you couldn't have got a better bloke. By gee, he was articulate.”

The dinner that night brought together about 130 people – the number having ballooned from the 80 expected just a week earlier.

They comprised 2Lt Sharp’s schoolmates from Tamworth’s Christian Brothers College, family, other graduates from the Officer Training Unit he went through, War Memorial representatives including Dr Nelson, and old colleagues from Channel 7 in Sydney, where he was working as a cameraman when he was called up.

“It was absolutely tremendous,” Mr O’Halloran said.

“The highlight was such a large group of people turning up to honour a bloke that was killed when he was 21, 50 years ago. Just tells you a bit of what we thought of him.”

2Lt Sharp’s nephew, Andrew Sharp, laid a wreath during the ceremony and also went to the dinner.

“It was very cheerful – there was a lot of recollection on the man that Gordon was, what a great guy he was and the people’s lives that he touched,” Mr Sharp said.

“He definitely made an impression.”

Another schoolmate, Doug Nash, said it had been a memorable day.

“If I had one word to describe the day it would be ‘emotional’. The dinner was actually fantastic, just the general mood of everybody there.”