Schoolchildren will record all 62,000 names and the ages at death of the World War I Roll of Honour. Australian schoolkids will read out the names of 62,000 World War I victims. ON July 28, 2014 the solemn voices of primary school children from around the country will quietly echo around the cloisters of the Australian War Memorial at the start of a four-year broadcast of the names World War 1 dead. There are 62,000 names on theGreat War Roll of Honour and those names and the ages of the soldiers when they died will be digitally recorded by school students and played back as a vocal tribute between July 2014 and November 11, 2018. Schoolchildren will be at the centre of War Memorial Director Brendan Nelson's plans to mark the centenary of the "war to end all wars." If the names and ages were broadcast every day that would be about 40 individuals per day for the 51 months of the centenary with each of the 6800 primary schools recording about nine randomly selected names. The list includes about 300 indigenous soldiers - and their tribute would be recorded by students at indigenous schools. In addition to the recordings Dr Nelson plans to order 100,000 crosses to be distributed to schools so that students can write a message to a fallen digger. The crosses will be sent to Turkey, France, Belgium and the Middle East and placed on the graves of soldiers at Gallipoli on Anzac Day 2015 and the Western Front and Palestine at other times. "It is about honouring (memorial founder Charles) Bean's vision to connect the past and the present," Dr Nelson said. This is a very practical way of connecting past sacrifices with the present and the future. Young Australians recording the Roll of Honour and age of death prompts them to reflect upon and understand that there were real men who had real lives and gave those lives in the name of freedom. Another initiative under consideration is to encourage school students to research the names and stories on their local cenotaphs. Most towns in Australia have a memorial that lists the dead from World War I. In many cases they include brothers or cousins who marched away never to return. The Memorial is also creating a Great War travelling exhibition in conjunction with the Centenary of Anzac that will include large items such as guns and vehicles as well electronic storyboards that will tell the story of the war. Images of the men who came from the 130 towns it is due to visit will be projected and a curator and historian will accompany the $10 million display. Dr Nelson said local people would be encouraged to bring their wartime memorabilia for examination by the experts. Other initiatives planned during the centenary include projecting names and images on the memorial's walls, displaying the front pages of newspapers from the time for every day of the conflict. There will be other displays telling the broader story of the nation at war including culture and politics. "Our challenge is to make our history live," he said.