This year, the 87-year-old, who as a 19-year-old lied about his age to get into the army and then fought with the 26th Battalion in Egypt and Italy during World War 2, will march to the Dunedin Cenotaph alongside his son, grandson and great-grandson.
The old soldier will also be sporting a new set of medals, reissued after he misplaced his and had paraded without them for the past two years. His great-grandson, Kristian Groves, will wear a matching pint-sized set when he marches alongside him at his first dawn parade.
It was "wonderful" that four generations of his family would march together, Mr Herriott said.
He said he attended a service every year wherever he was and had been to parades all over the South Island and one in Cairns, where he was holidaying at the time.
He would continue attending dawn parades as long as he could because, to him, the purpose of Anzac Day was to make an effort to remember the soldiers who had not come home.
"[It's about] fallen comrades. You don't forget them."
Mr Herriott's son, Phil (48), himself an ex-naval warrant officer, said he marched every year, but usually "down the back".
This year, because of Mr Herriott's failing sight, the RSA had allowed the family to walk "up front with Dad".
His father was one of four Invercargill brothers who went to war and one of two who came back, he said.
The military tradition remained strong in the next generation of the family too. Mr Herriott's three sons, including Phil, all served with the Royal New Zealand Navy.
• A mild day is expected in Otago today with temperatures for dawn services expected to be in double figures, MetService weather ambassador Bob McDavitt says.
Meteorologists say a low over the Tasman Sea will drag subtropical air on to New Zealand this weekend.
A moist northeaster would mean weekend temperatures could reach 16degC-17degC.
