THE names inscribed on the holy water font at St Paul's Anglican Church, Oatley, had been there for years but no one in the congregation appeared to know much about the men behind the names.
The most that was known was that they had not come home from World War I.
About five years ago the minister of the day asked Bill Wright, of Oatley, to see if he could find out something about these long dead veterans.
Mr Wright, a retired Qantas aircraft mechanic, mentioned his new research job at Oatley RSL and ended up with 50 more names from the club's honour roll.
He now has at least 70 short stories about men from Oatley, Penshurst and Mortdale who went to war between 1914 and 1918.
And he reckons that's just a scraping of the surface as there are many more honour rolls of the war dead all over St George, Sydney and Australia.
The Hurstville District Roll of Honour holds about 1800 names — a drop in the ocean when compared with the 416,809 who enlisted, the 60,000 killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner. At the time Australia had a population of fewer than 5 million.
Mr Wright's grandfather John Alfred Wright served at Gallipoli but his name is not on any honour roll because he returned home.
"He came home and never said a word about the war," Mr Wright, a Vietnam veteran, said.
With hardly anyone left to talk to firsthand about the Great War, Mr Wright spent a lot of time researching online and in the archives at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. "To me the symbols on memorials mean nothing unless there is some explanation to go with them," he said.
The Oatley Heritage & Historical Society member wants to see memorial walkways in parks bearing plaques containing short histories.
Meantime, Mr Wright is organising a book publisher thanks to the $5000 he received from Banks MP David Coleman under the federal government's Local Anzac Centenary Grant program. The book will be launched on Anzac Day and distributed to schools, RSL sub-branches, libraries and other relevant organisations.
"Every year on Anzac Day thousands of people attend services and look at memorials, but they don't really know who the men were, why they served or what their story was," Mr Wright said.
"This book is all about shining a light on their stories and honouring their service."
Private Robert Cooper James Murray was aged 16 years and six months when killed at Gallipoli in September 1916. He had enlisted on April 20, 1915, after convincing an aunt to sign permission papers. His father served in the same war.
The Sadler and Pickering families endured hope and heartache after a burial mistake. A young man who died in Ypres, Belgium, was found with a penny inscribed with the regimental details of WC Sadler and was buried under that name. But Sadler later turned up in another section of the army and got to go home. The body was found to be that of Stanley James Pickering.
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