Once-Forgotten WWI Veterans Honoured a Century Later

They went to war as chipper young men, only to find themselves in regional Australia a handful of years later: shattered, isolated and haunted by memories of the trenches. World War I (WWI) soldiers who died in combat and were laid to rest in official Commonwealth war graves, but no one has similarly honoured the survivors—until now. Five veterans organisations across Australia have received federal government funding for gravestones to commemorate veterans who returned home and died of causes unrelated to service—including 20 former soldiers who lived out the rest of their days in Orange. Forgotten Diggers founder John Thomas says many of them came from other countries such as England, Ireland, Scotland and Canada and after the war they ended up in the regional New South Wales (NSW) town suffering from “shell shock.”...