Despite the rainy morning, the skies too paused when the veterans marched down Monaro Street.

The relatively balmy weather remained through the succinct and touching service until the last post trumpeted through the dark streets.

Queanbeyan Eden Monaro Legacy member Richard Gregory said it was significant that a large number of people continued to pay their respects each Anzac Day, 102 years after soldiers landed on Gallipoli.

"It's very difficult for us to assess the numbers because it is dark, but the numbers do seem to be increasing each year,” Mr Gregory said.

“I think it went very well.”

Legacy cares for the widows of men and women who have died while serving their country, and Mr Gregory said the decreasing numbers of the partners was sad.

But members from HMAS Harman ensure the march and the service is conducted respectfully and tastefully.

"Our club used to look after 256 widows in the local area, and now I think we have only about 120 left,” Mr Gregory said.

"So that is the sad aspect, but the active participation by servicemen is still very good.”

Mr Gregory said the decreasing numbers of those directly impacted by each world war gave the dawn service added meaning.

"Of course a lot of these women are very aged, we don't have many modern generations of widows from Afghanistan and Iraq, they are generally in Brisbane, Sydney, those areas,” Mr Gregory said.

"So our ladies are mainly World War II, with the average age of our widows being in their late 80s and 90s.”

When the population of Queanbeyan was only about 1600, nearly a third of that number was registered as participants in World War I.

Mr Gregory said these numbers were a powerful reminder of how cumbersome the war was, with a number of descendants from the original veterans in attendance on Tuesday morning.

The McInnes, Smith and Dover families are just a selection of the remaining relatives of these servicemen and women and offer a reminder to an unimaginable war.