The Brighton-Le-Sands RSL Sub-branch president, who turns 82 two days after Anzac Day, is the RSL's school liaison officer for the Brighton area, regularly talking with students at Brighton Public School, Moorefield Girls High School and Sir Thomas More College on the significance of Anzac Day and Remembrance Day.

Mr Gurnett first tried to join the army when he was 15, not much older than many of the students he now lectures, but his parents found out and intercepted him and took him home.

He successfully enlisted when he was 16 by bumping up his age.

Mr Gurnett said he knew of other soldiers who were even younger than him. Some were as young as 14 or 15 and were going off to fight in the Middle East.

He served in Townsville and when the war was over he volunteered to go to Japan with the British Commonwealth Occupational Force. He was stationed in Hiroshima from March 1946 to March 1947.

"The only thing that was still standing were the chimney stacks," he said. "Apart from this, there was nothing. The houses were gone for miles."

While in Hiroshima, Mr Gurnett visited Japanese children in hospital.

"I went in the first day and after that I never went back. They were kids like anywhere," he said.

After the war he had a varied career, working as a diver in Sydney Harbour repairing bridges and wharfs, then as a fireman and a publican.

He married his wife Doreen in 1952 and they had two children, son Alan and daughter Jann.

They raised their family in Sans Souci, where he and Doreen still live.

Mr Gurnett was a TAFE lecturer in hotel and club administration for many years and he still puts his lecturing skills to good use, talking to students about Anzac Day.

Thanks to the renewed interest of the young, he said the veterans are confident that the Anzac Day message will be carried on.

"Today's students are very aware of the significance of Anzac Day," he said.

"This wasn't always the case. They have changed for the better over the past 10 years.

"I'm not sure why. It could be because of computers where the information is now so available to them.

"They are very interested in the history of Anzac. The message is starting to get through that this is why we have such a good country to live in."