Villers Bretonneux Anzac Day: Emma Crisp’s family link turns remembrance into a personal journey
For Albany-born Emma Crisp, villers bretonneux anzac day is not just a date on a calendar. It is a trip to France, a family history uncovered through research, and a chance to step onto the field in a commemorative AFL match with the Australian Spirit Team.
Why Villers Bretonneux Anzac Day matters to one player
Crisp, now based in Amsterdam, will represent the Australian Spirit Team in the annual Anzac football clash in Villers-Bretonneux, a town tied closely to her family’s wartime past. She earned selection after showing a direct connection to her great grandfather, Capt. Ralph Harry Crisp of the Australian Army Medical Corps.
That connection gave new meaning to a story she had not fully explored before. “I hadn’t dug into my family history myself so it was a good opportunity to dig into it and realise that I actually did have a connection, ” she said. “I’m very excited and chuffed to be selected and really looking forward to it because I think its not something you would otherwise experience. ”
Her great grandfather enlisted in 1917 and was appointed medical officer to the 49th Battalion on January 1, 1918, as part of the 13th Australian Infantry Brigade in the fourth division. He served on the Western Front, including in the Somme region around Villers-Bretonneux, where Australian troops played a key role in halting the German advance in 1918.
What will the trip include before the match?
Crisp will travel to France midweek for a four-day tour before the game on Saturday. The schedule includes battlefield visits, tours, and information sessions in the lead-up to the match. She said the group will also visit a dedicated memorial museum.
“We’ve got a bunch of different activities in the lead-up including battlefield tours, they’ve got a dedicated memorial museum there, we do a few tours and information sessions, ” she said. “It will be really cool to see the place and have a tour and actually get all the history from some of the experts they have organised for us. ”
The Anzac Day schedule begins with a dawn service before the women’s AFL match kicks off at 10am. For Crisp, that order gives the day a weight that stretches beyond sport. The remembrance comes first, then the game.
How does the team reflect Australians living abroad?
The Australian Spirit Team is made up largely of Australians living across Europe, many with Anzac ties. Crisp said the shared background gives the squad a strong sense of connection even before the players meet on the ground.
“There’s a lot of Aussies living in London or Germany so everyone is Australian and everyone has some kind of link to the Anzac’s, ” she said. “I’m really excited to meet a bunch of new girls that I haven’t met before on the team and get more involved with the AFL in Europe. ”
That mix of distance and belonging sits at the heart of villers bretonneux anzac day for Crisp: a life in Amsterdam, a family story in France, and an Australian identity carried across borders. The match will be played on a field shaped by memory, but for her it is also a chance to stand inside a history that has until now lived mostly in names, dates, and family traces. When the dawn service ends and the ball is bounced, the day will hold both the public ritual and the private discovery that made villers bretonneux anzac day matter in the first place.
