Why a trip to Vimy Ridge is so meaningful for 2 Halifax teens

When Katie Clyburne walks the trenches at Vimy Ridge in the coming days, the 16-year-old from Halifax will be doing it under much different circumstances than Pte. Hugh Cameron, her great-great uncle, did 102 years ago.

"I'll be able to walk in the trenches and come out of them without fear of being shot or hit by shrapnel, but a hundred years ago that wasn't the case," she said. "If you even so much as stuck your head out of the top of the trenches, you would fear for your life."

Clyburne is one of 20 Canadian students who will be taking part in a free week-long education program in France and Belgium that includes visits to museums, cemeteries and battlefields to learn about Canada's role in the First World War. 

The program runs from April 2-10 and is put on by the Vimy Foundation, a charity focused on preserving and promoting Canada's First World War legacy.

Vimy Ridge marked the first time the four divisions of Canada's Corps fought together.

The four-day battle saw the Canadians suffer more than 10,600 casualties, almost 3,600 of which were deaths, in their successful effort to take Vimy from the Germans. It was a feat that British and French troops had failed to accomplish.

Applicants must be between 14 and 17 and the application process includes submitting a letter describing the applicant's volunteer work and writing a biography/tribute to a soldier or nurse. For Clyburne, she chose to write about Cameron.

On the first day of the attack on April 9, 1917, Cameron was hit in the leg by a bullet or shrapnel. He was transferred to the United Kingdom and died of an infection about two months later.

Clyburne is looking forward to visiting various battlefields where Canadian troops fought.

"We can learn about the First World War in history class, and can read about the battles, but until you really get there, I don't think that the reality of everything that happened is actually going to sink in," she said.

"Just being there, everything will seem so much more real."

Theo Armstrong-Robinson of Halifax is also going on the excursion. For his essay, he wrote about his great-grandfather's cousin, Lt. Alfred Churchill. Prior to enlisting in 1915 at 20, he was a banker at the Bank of Nova Scotia in Windsor, N.S.

Churchill died on the first day of battle. He was leading his company, which suffered heavy casualties after being hit by a shell.

Despite his injury, Churchill insisted that other members of his company who had worse injuries be treated first. He was then struck by another shell and died.

"It was really interesting, and kind of inspiring, because before I had never really known that there was any World War One connection in my family at all," said Thompson-Armstrong, 16.

Now 102 years later, Thompson-Armstrong will be at the same site Churchill was when he died.

"It will be really cool to be able to be there on the anniversary of when he and so many others gave their lives," said Thompson-Armstrong.

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