A Winnipeg teenager is heading overseas in April to visit Vimy Ridge and other historical First World War sites in Belgium and France.
“There’s no one left who can recount first-hand what it was like,” Matthew Owen-Hunt told CTV News Sunday. “I think it’s really important, now more than ever, that young people understand the significance of history, so it doesn’t happen again.”
Owen-Hunt, a grade 11 student at Collège Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau in Transcona, is a 2025 Vimy Pilgrimage Award recipient. He’s one of two Manitobans heading on the trip alongside 18 other teenagers selected from across Canada.
The Vimy Pilgrimage Award is a week-long trip where students learn about the First World War by visiting battlefields, memorials and museums.
“I think it’s really important to commemorate our history especially when it pertains to war,” Owen-Hunt said. “Knowing the history and knowing the people who served to protect our way of life.”
Owen-Hunt is no stranger to Canadian Armed Forces history. He’s a member of the Lord Selkirk Robert Fraser Memorial Pipe Band and plays bagpipes at Remembrance Day ceremonies every November.
He started playing the pipes just over eight years ago. He said he never thought picking up a musical instrument would lead to this type of opportunity.
Part of the Vimy Pilgrimage Award application required Owen-Hunt to write about a soldier or nursing sister who died overseas and is buried in Belgium or France. Naturally, Owen-Hunt selected James Cleland Richardson, a piper from British Columbia, who is buried at the Adanac Military Cemetery in Miraumont, France.
“He is the only Canadian piper to have won the Victoria Cross during the First World War,” Owen-Hunt explained. “We’re supposed to have some sort of connection the person we selected. I chose him because he was a piper, and I am a piper too.”
Owen-Hunt said he’s most looking forward to seeing the Canadian National Vimy Memorial with his own eyes.
“I’ve met many people who have gone there and piped for the services at Vimy Ridge,” he said. “I’m going to be bringing my pipes as well, and hopefully I’ll get a chance to play there.”
