FOURTEEN crosses were put in sand on Sunday April 21 to honour Australia's fighters as the nation's first casualty of World War I was also remembered for his sacrifice in 1914.
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The recognition came at Albury's St Matthew's Church, which hosted the annual field of remembrance service that was first conducted by the Albury War Widows Guild in 2002.
Added lustre was given to the occasion with the playing of a 14-minute video documentary The First to Fall: The Malcolm Chisholm Story.
"Malcolm did not live long enough to hear the words 'Gallipoli', 'Anzac' and the 'Western Front'," narrator Jamie Way says.
"At the time of Malcolm's death nobody was to know that he would be the first of over 60,000 Australians to fall in the Great War and was one of 8000 troops to die in the Battle of Le Cateau."
It was the first time the production of Tumbarumba film-maker John Riddell had screened in Albury after being completed last November following its commissioning by Corryong's The Man From Snowy River Festival.
Although from Sydney, Lieutenant Chisholm had strong connections to the Upper Murray with his mother, Emma Chisholm, hailing from Bringenbrong Station and being part of the pioneering Mitchell family.
His first cousin once removed Honor Auchinleck was a special guest at the service, doing a reading from Ecclesiasticus, which begins with 'let us now sing the praises of famous men'.
She told The Border Mail the recognition "means a lot, also because the family were parishioners here".
"I think James Mitchell might have donated the Elizabeth bell here," Mrs Auchinleck said.
The documentary includes an interview with Mrs Auchinleck and artist George Petrou, who presented his portrait of Lieutenant Chisholm to the French village of Ligny-en-Cambresis in April, 2023.
The small town features a street and school named for the soldier, who is buried there.
"It was quite interesting that he was better known in France than over here, but you can understand that because firstly he was serving in a British regiment and it took so long for news to get through in those days," Mrs Auchinleck said.
Mrs Chisholm's ashes were interred near her son's grave in 1928 after she died in Sydney aged 61.
"It speaks volumes about her connection to her son and today was about widows, but the widows were also mothers and sisters," Mrs Auchinleck said.
Among those who attended the service were Albury MP Justin Clancy and Albury RSL sub-branch president Graham Docksey.
