'Everyone was touched by it'

Eight-year-old Marianne Huebel has been visiting the Australian War Memorial in Canberra since she was two years old. Her great-grandparents met at Neuve-Eglise near Ypres on the Western Front during the First World War, her grandfather served in Egypt during the Second World War, and today her older brother lives within walking distance of the Memorial in Canberra.

So when Marianne and her friend Luke decided to do a presentation for their classmates in Melbourne for Anzac Day, the choice was obvious. They decided to talk about the Anzacs during the First World War by “being soldiers” and sharing their stories.

Marianne, who was seven at the time, had met the Director of the Memorial, Dr Brendan Nelson, at a Last Post Ceremony and wrote to him politely asking for feedback on their presentation.

“I am in grade two,” she wrote. “I met you at the War Memorial last December, at the beginning of my project and I have put our photo on the front.”

She explained that her great-grandfather, James Garwood, was serving on the Western Front as an officer in the British cavalry when he met her great-grandmother, Marie Goudezeune. He was staying in her family’s farmhouse at Neuve-Eglise in Belgium. Fearing that they might be overrun, he asked Marie to go to England – where they were married after the war.

Marianne enclosed a copy of her presentation and signed off with a hand-drawn picture of her cat. She was delighted when the Director wrote back wishing her all the best for her future studies and signing off with a drawing of his own dog, Sniff.

“Thank you so much for sending me your Anzac project and school presentation,” he wrote. “You have done a wonderful job. It is easy to follow and gives us all the important information we need to understand the First World War and Australia’s place in it. I am sure your classmates will have learned a great deal from the presentation by you and Luke … Your great-grandfather would be very proud of you as no doubt are your parents and teacher. Your research and understanding of the war is very impressive as is your ability to explain it to people. Congratulations.”

The next time Marianne visited the Memorial she met the Director and braved the rain and the cold to lay a wreath at the Last Post Ceremony. Dressed in her best clothes and wearing shiny shoes “just like the soldiers”, Marianne wore a poppy “next to her heart” in memory of those who had served and died.

“I didn’t know I was going to lay a wreath until we got there and I was very proud to do it,” she said. “I was freezing in my stylish clothes, but it was lovely ... 

“I just saw a picture of my great-grandfather, who was an officer in the First World War, and I wanted to learn more. I do lots of presentations with Luke … and I was very proud of it.”

Her parents, Robert and Maureen Huebel, couldn’t have been more proud as she walked to the Pool of Reflection in the Commemorative Area to lay her wreath. 

“The First World War had a huge impact on Australia,” her mother Maureen said.

“So many were lost [and] it divided the country and caused enormous pain, but that was the beginning of mateship and, although there was immense suffering, they always had compassion for each other ….

“Everyone was touched by it.”

Marianne now hopes to write presentations about the Second World War as well as the Korean and Vietnam wars.