Charlotte's history making win
Schools
A lover of history, Year 11 Loreto College student Charlotte Matthias made history herself when she was announced the State winner of the prestigious national history competition, the Simpson Prize.
Charlotte is the only student in the State to have won all three major history competitions – the Premier’s Anzac Spirit School Prize and South Australian Young Historian of the Year in 2016, and now the Simpson Prize.
She received the Premier’s Anzac Spirit award last year for her research on Private Miller Mack, a Ngarrindjeri man whose remains were recently taken from West Terrace Cemetery and buried with full military honours in his home town of Raukkan. In a tribute to Charlotte’s research, the family of Pte Mack invited her to attend this service. For her Simpson Prize entry, Charlotte submitted an essay examining the significance of the Western Front battles in helping to shape the Anzac story.
As part of her prize, Charlotte spent two days at national institutions in Canberra as well as joining the seven other winners from each state and territory for the two-week Simpson Prize study tour to London, France and Belgium.
Accompanied by the two successful teacher chaperones and Dr Lachlan Grant, the Australian War Memorial historian, the group visited the Western Front and attended Anzac Day commemorative services in France and Belgium. A highlight of the tour was being present at the powerful and moving Anzac Day dawn service at Villers-Bretonneux.
Charlotte was joined on the tour by the New South Wales Simpson Prize winner, Lucinda Hogan, from Loreto Kirribilli.
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