Elise Ganley

Elise to visit Europe war graves

A Port Pirie pair will fly to Europe to pay grave-side tributes to local soldiers who paid the

ultimate sacrifice for Australia's freedom.

St Mark's College student Elise Ganley won the trip after entering the Premier's Anzac School Prize competition.
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Elise and Mr Hobart will travel between France, Belgium and England during the two-week
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Elise submitted essays about the Anzac tributes of mateship, sacrifice and loyalty to the State Government as part of the competition.

She also told of her research into local war heroes and said she would like to visit the grave of Port Pirie man Corporal Walter Arnold who was killed in action in France.

"He was awarded the military medal for bravery under fire," Elise said.

"It would be appropriate to pay tribute at his memorial at Villers Bretonneux, should the trip take us there."

Elise said she plans to leave a memento from Port Pirie on the gravesite of a fallen local soldier.

"Hopefully, I will do this process justice so it will reinforce the meaning in our community of the real meaning of the response to the Ode of Rememberance , We Will Remember Them," she said.
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Elise was chosen along with students from Adelaide private schools, including Pembroke, Wilderness and St Peter's.

Elise Ganley, of St Mark's College, Port Pirie, spoke to Booleroo Centre District School students about her experiences on Anzac Day 2007 visiting Gallipoli, the Western Front, Belgium, France and London with former State Governor, Marjorie Jackson-Nelson.
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Elise was one of five South Australian Year 10 students who won a competition, and the only country one in the group.She encouraged all Year 10s to think about entering each year because "You never know!"

She researched seven different soldiers before leaving on her trip, and took lots of photos of their graves for their families while over there, and visited the families when she came home.

Elise's power-point presentation was excellent and helped show her audience what really happened during World War 1.Although Gallipoli and Anzac Cove, with 8,000 soldiers dying there, was extremely moving, she felt the Western Front had been somewhat forgotten as 46,000 men were killed on The Somme.She was also impressed with the stories of how the stretcher bearers saved so many lives while being under constant fire themselves.

Elise's group visited a lot of beautifully kept cemeteries, from very large to quite small, and discovered just how much the French and Belgium people still really appreciate what the Australians and their allies did for them.

After visiting Tyne Cot, the biggest allied cemetery in the world, Villers-Bretonneux, the Menin Gate and other memorials with hundreds of thousands of names, Elise said it was overwhelming to comprehend just how many young men had given their lives for their countries.
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Elise is very proud to have been given one as a memento of her visit.

Although it was very traumatic to learn first hand of the horrific conditions in the Flanders mud and actually see the trenches and imagine the horror of war, she felt privileged to have had the experience.

Elise said she believed the Anzac spirit still relates to Australians and her trip helped her to understand that spirit of loyalty, of never giving up, dedication to their country and their mates without hesitation has been handed down today.She spoke of the young men all those years ago who went off expecting adventure and found the reality so very different.
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SPECIAL GUEST ... Port Pirie's Elise Ganley, of St Mark's College, was pictured outside the Booleroo Centre District School Memorial Gates with a few of the students who heard her presentation on her visit to Gallipoli and the Western Front. Pictured are Darcy McCallum, left, Ben Heaslip, Dylan Woolford, Elise, Grant Saltmarsh, and
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SPECIAL GUEST ... Port Pirie's Elise Ganley, of St Mark's College, was pictured outside the Booleroo Centre District School Memorial Gates with a few of the students who heard her presentation on her visit to Gallipoli and the Western Front.Pictured are Darcy McCallum, left, Ben Heaslip, Dylan Woolford, Elise, Grant Saltmarsh, and

9/05/2008 | Elise Ganley, of St Mark's College, Port Pirie, spoke to Booleroo Centre District School students about her experiences on Anzac Day 2007 visiting Gallipoli, the Western Front, Belgium, France and London with former State Governor, Marjorie Jackson-Nelson.
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9/05/2008 | Elise Ganley, of St Mark's College, Port Pirie, spoke to Booleroo Centre District School students about her experiences on Anzac Day 2007 visiting Gallipoli, the Western Front, Belgium, France and London with former State Governor, Marjorie Jackson-Nelson.