Visiting Archives New Zealand is “hands-on history” for students from Wairarapa College, says their history teacher Helen Sproat.
Mrs Sproat and 25 of her year 12 history students researched World War One personnel records at Archives New Zealand’s Wellington office, today, as part of an internal assessment for their NCEA.
Each student was studying a soldier who died during the war. All of the soldiers were from the Wairarapa and their names are on the Masterton cenotaph.
The students looked at details such as what the soldiers did before enlisting, what bigger campaigns they took part in, and what happened to them during the war and how they died.
Mrs Sproat said many of the students were “moved” by the human side of the records they saw and thought it unfair that several of the soldiers who survived the battlefields died of the flu on the way home.
She said coming to Archives New Zealand is a wonderful link to have with the past.
“It’s fantastic that rural students get to see these primary resources which give them great insight into the lives of New Zealanders who lived in those times.”
This is the second year Mrs Sproat’s class has visited the archives. They were accompanied by Neil Francis from Wairarapa Archives in Masterton.
For the group making the journey from Masterton to Wellington by train meant getting up early and according to them all it was well worth the effort.