Students Create Website Honoring Fallen Soldiers of Belmont Hill

Fifth Former Max Peterson sat in the library one day last year and gazed up at a memorial on the wall honoring the thirteen Belmont Hill alumni who lost their lives in foreign conflicts.

“I had seen it before, but this time I looked a lot more closely,” he said. “I realized these men were part of some of the most pivotal moments in our history. The significance of it really dawned on me. I wanted to make sure their legacy was not forgotten. That’s what led us to start the Fallen Soldiers of Belmont Hill club.”

“We now have about 15 members,” said co-founder and fellow Fifth Former Liam Kelly, “boys who really have a passion for this cause and want to see these young men remembered.”

Max and Liam founded the club to honor the 13 former Belmont Hill students killed in action. Their fervent hope is that the memory of the young men killed will never vanish. To ensure this, the boys decided to create a website honoring each of the 13 fallen alumni. The website, succinctly titled “The 13,” features remarkably detailed biographical information on each soldier, from their childhood to their days at Belmont Hill and beyond, to their road toward making the ultimate sacrifice. The boys pored through information found at Alumni House and even utilized the website ancestry.com to learn as much about the 13 as possible.

“We want to immortalize them in some way and what better way than a website that can stay up permanently,” Max said.  Liam added, “It was important for us to digitalize the information we found because much of it came from papers and yearbooks and such. We were able to really delve into their lives and show the road they walked. We personalized them.”

The website is not only extraordinary in its detail regarding each fallen soldier but is also an extraordinary testimony to the passion of the boys who worked so hard to put it together. “We just want to make sure that they are never forgotten,” Max stated. Liam noted, “We’re nearly the same age as some of those who lost their lives. We want students here to realize that.”

Learn more about the project with the video here.