A Maitland student has joined a contingent of young scholars selected by the state government to travel to Europe to mark the centenary of the First World War’s bloodiest battles.
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Maitland Christian High School year 11 student Elizabeth Reid, along with 23 other students across the state, received the NSW Premier’s Anzac Memorial Scholarship.
The prestigious accolade will see her travel to key battlefield memorial sites in France and Belgium.
Ms Reid’s July visit will coincide with the centenary of the hallowed battles of Pozières and Fromelles, in which Australia lost thousands of troops.
Though Maitland’s 34th Battallion wasn’t deployed to either battle, Miss Reid said her great-great uncle fought and died on the Western Front and was buried in Belgium.
Miss Reid said families like hers felt the impact of the war for generations.
“The world war had an impact on my great grandparents, who passed that down when they raised my grandparents, and my parents and then me,” she said.
“Going overseas to fight for the freedom of people they’d never meet – I don’t think I’d have that courage.”
Member for Maitland Jenny Aitchison presented Miss Reid with a certificate at a ceremony at her school last week.
Ms Aitchison spoke on the importance of preserving peace and the opportunity Miss Reid had seized as a result of her determination.
Pozières is a small village in the Somme valley of France.
The Australian 1st division took the village from German hands in July 1916.
The 1st, 2nd and 7th divisions suffered heavy losses from artillery bombardment and counter-attacks to hold onto Pozières.
The ill-fated Battle of Fromelles saw thousands of Australian troops mowed down by German machine-gunners in their first major offensive on the Western Front.
