Aitken College students Declan Harvey and Madeleine Lively chose to remember Herbert Thomas Watson during a special Anzac Day service held at the Greenvale school last Friday.
Mr Watson was a member of the 22nd Australian Infantry Battalion, who died in Belgium while fighting the Battle of Ypres on October 3, 1917. He was 27.
The year 7 students reflected on his service and sacrifice and placed a cross on the school oval in his memory.
All of the school’s students, from prep to year 12, took part in the commemorative service, which was made all the more emotive by the presence of a bugler playing The Last Post.
Deputy principal Kim Forward said the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing inspired the school to do something different, “to encourage each class and student to remember individual men and women who served”.
The students planted a Gallipoli oak, an evergreen shrub, to create a symbolic link between the centenary of Anzac, the people of Turkey and Australian school students.
LEST WE FORGET
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