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When Roger Trewick stands in front of the honour roll inside the Elmore Memorial Hall, a familiar name stares back at him.
In the middle column, on the second line from the bottom, “Trewick R.” is inscribed.
Mr Trewick’s namesake, his great uncle, was killed on the French battlefront 100 years ago next week.
The army private was a veteran by the time he fought in the First World War, having been posted to the Boer War battlefields of South Africa in the previous decade.
He re-enlisted at 33, but within four weeks of arriving at the war’s coalface, he was killed in a German trench not far from Villiers Bretonneux.
The date of his death – May 3 – was also significant to the surviving Mr Trewick because it is the date his son, Kurtis, was born.
Kurtis is also a member of the Australian Defence Force.
Mr Trewick recounted his great uncle’s sacrifice to attendees at a memorial service in Elmore on Tuesday and talked about visiting the memorial at Villiers Bretonneux.
There’s a sign above the school there and it says, ‘Never forget the Australians’. They’re very appreciative of what our country did,” Mr Trewick said.
Elmore residents began Anzac Day with a dawn service under the shelter of their train station platform.
A 10am march, headed by a Scottish pipe band, travelled from the station to the town’s memorial hall.
About 300 locals listened to a first-hand accounts of armed conflict and laid wreaths before a white crucifix featuring the words ‘lest we forget’.