NEARLY 100 years after Border-born soldier Harold Elliot died in action, a mysterious brass memorial struck in his honour has been given to his great nephew.
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The piece, featuring a three-tiered base and pole, had been housed in a cabinet at Melbourne's Fairfield-Alphington RSL sub-branch which is set to be demolished next year.
Family history buff Glenda Macdonald has the job of rehousing the RSL's memorabilia and after some internet detective work she located Sergeant Elliot's great nephew Austin Elliot in Wodonga.
She travelled from Melbourne on Friday to present the inscribed memorial to Mr Elliot at his home.
"It's a little bit exciting," Mrs Macdonald said.
"It makes me feel good that I can give something back when somebody doesn't know about it and in this day and age with families interested in their family memorabilia it's good they get it back and treasure it."
Sergeant Elliot, the son of a drover from Bethanga, was 18 and working in a bank in Gippsland when he enlisted.
A member of the 8th Battalion, Sergeant Elliot received the Military Medal for his efforts in organising a party of bombers and rifle grenadiers and capturing territory in the Battle of Menin Road in September 1917.
He was killed in April 1918, possibly by a sniper, at the end of the Battle of Hazebrouk and was buried in a grave in France bearing the words "native of Bethanga".
Mr Elliot said he only learned of his great uncle's war deeds in 1998 when contacted by someone who had visited the grave.
He said he could not put into words what it meant to look at the memorial which had been presented to the RSL by Sergeant Elliot's parents.
Mrs Macdonald said the item had been made by Melbourne jewellers Pellegrini & Co., but she had not been able to find any records of its manufacture or what may have adorned its pole.
Mr Elliot is keen for it to be put on public display.
"It's got to go into a museum, it's not something you would put in a hall," he said.
The Yackandandah museum has shown interest with member Susan Reynolds saying the memorial would fit an existing display marking the district's contribution to the Great War.
