This year marks 100 years since the first Australian troops landed in France in what was to become a harrowing and epic three-year battle on the Western Front.
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Related: Photos from last year's Anzac Day service at Tuncurry...click here
From March 1916 until 1918 thousand of Australian soldiers were forced to deal with the constant fear of death or serious injury from enemy shell and sniper fire, at the same time they had to put up with life in the open trenches.
To cap it off diggers were exposed to the extremes of harsh European winters, vermin and disease.
During the two years the Australian Imperial Forces were on the battle fields more than 46,000 men were killed, 114,000 wounded, 16,000 gassed and almost 4000 taken prisoner.
Forster’s Ashley Naylor has a proud family connection with the battlefields of WWI.
The list of family heroes includes a great grandfather who fought on the Western Front, another, a scientist, who was seconded by the British during WWII to work on top secret research into the atomic bomb and a great uncle who wrote textbooks on the second world war, to name a few.
Ashley’s ancestors were awarded medals, returned home heroes, but like many, some were broken men.
Ashley is so proud of her family that she researched their association with the two World Wars, wrote about their contribution to the war effort, and in return received recognition in year’s Premier’s Anzac Memorial Scholarship.
In July the Year 10 Great Lakes College Forster campus student, along with 23 fellow award recipients from throughout NSW will travel to the former battlefields and memorial sties of the Western Front to view firsthand the site where their ancestors fought.
During her 12 days in Europe Ashley will travel to France to participate in official commemorations of the Battle of Pozieres and the Battle of Fromelles, which were the setting for displays of great sacrifice by Australian troops in 1916.
A talented artist, Ashley plans to chronicle the trip with a scrapbook of her drawings and jottings from the journey.
“Part of the scholarship is you had to make a report on the trip to show both the sponsors and the schools.”
While there are no longer any original Anzacs living, Ashley is keen to ensure their involvement and spirit remains part of our history.
Ashley said learning about our Anzac heroes was a turning point in her life.
“I didn’t realise what the Anzac spirit was all about; what went into it and the hardships they endured.”
