When he travels to Gallipoli for the Anzac Centenary 16-year-old Brayden Duignan-Teys will lay a small cross at the grave of an Australian soldier.
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Australian War Memorial director Brendan Nelson presented Brayden with the cross at a fund-raising evening at Hunter Valley Grammar School on Friday.
Last year the memorial distributed 2000 crosses with written messages of hope and thanks which Australian school children placed on the graves of Australian World War I soldiers overseas.
The concept originated in late 2010, when a group of individuals based in Australia and Britain sought to pay their respects to those who had died while on active service by placing small wooden crosses on war graves on the Western Front battlefields of Belgium and France.
The Australian War Memorial’s Commemorative Crosses project will draw on the commemorative experiences of school children visiting the memorial by capturing their reflections on those Australians who have sacrificed their lives in war and other conflicts.
These reflections will take the form of short messages inscribed on small wooden crosses.
The Australian War Memorial aims to have 100,000 crosses made during the centenary years – 2014 to 2018.
The crosses will be placed on Australian war graves and memorials overseas with the help of embassies, high commissions, consulates, and government centenary programs.
Brayden was one of 20 students from the Hunter chosen to attend commemorations in Gallipoli in 2015.
The year 11 student’s great-grandfathers – James Ernest Duignan and Jack Hill – both fought in WWI.
