Five Tasmanian students travelled to the Western Front in Belgium and France in 2016.
The students were the winners of the Frank MacDonald Memorial Prize 2015-16 which is named in honour of Tasmania's last surviving WWI veteran.
The study tour plays a vital role in ensuring our young people learn more about those who served and gain an understanding of the ANZAC spirit.
Each student and member of the study tour has researched a World War One serviceman and they are now looking forward to ‘presenting’ their research in the form of a pilgrimage or tribute to their soldier at a site of significance on the battlefields.
Each student and member of the study tour researched a World War One serviceman and presented their research in the form of a pilgrimage or tribute to their soldier at a site of significance on the battlefields.
The tour group participated in a number of formal ceremonies - the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate, Ypres and the La Flame ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
Earlier in the year as part of the lead-up educational program, the students visited the Australian War Memorial, in Canberra; Angelsea Barracks and Soldiers Memorial Avenue, in Hobart, and a World War One exhibition at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, in Launceston, to increase their knowledge of Australia's military history.
The students were selected based on their entries in the Frank MacDonald Memorial Prize, an essay-based competition open to all students undertaking Year Nine in government and non-government schools in Tasmania, as well as home-schooled students.
Since 2005, the year students first travelled as part of this program, following the death of Frank MacDonald in 2003 at the age of 107, 69 Tasmanian students have taken part in a study tour of the Western Front in France and Belgium taking in many of the areas where Frank MacDonald served.
Members of the Frank MacDonald Memorial Prize Study Tour October 2016 were:
Information about soldiers being researched may be viewed here.
Follow the Frank MacDonald Study Tour on Facebook.
If you would like to find out more about Tasmania's involvement in military history or to share your research about Tasmanians who served visit the Centenary of ANZAC website.