RESEARCHERS behind the South Australian Headstone Project have had success tracking down family members of several servicemen who lay to rest in Willaston Cemetery.

The men all served in World War One but either because of hardship or disconnection from family, ended up lying in unmarked graves.

President of the Headstone Project John Brownie said significant work has been carried out to identify eight men at the Willaston cemetery who are now eligible to have a donated headstone, recognising their service, placed on their graves.

The headstones will be unveiled as part of a special gathering in December that will be attended by Premier Steven Marshall, those involved in seeing the local-arm of the project come to fruition, and many long lost relatives.

Mr Brownie said the Headstone Project team is delighted to be able to place the headstones on the graves, following almost a year researching local WWI soldiers and trying to track down their descendants.

“We’ve made contact with all the families and that’s been a necessity because the grounds are out of bounds to us unless we have the permission of the relatives or descendants of the deceased and grave lease holders,” he said.

“And most importantly what we do of course is for the families.

“A number of them didn’t know anything about the relatives given most of them have been dead for the better part of a hundred years, and these people are at least one generation, sometimes two generations removed.”

Of the more than 1000 World War 1 veterans laid to rest in unmarked South Australian graves, it is believed there are at least 13 buried at the Willaston Cemetery.

“They served and they deserve to be remembered,” Mr Brownlie said.

“We think it’s the very least we can do.”

The Headstone Project began in Tasmania in 2011 and since coming to SA in 2017 has formally identified more than 70 unmarked graves for WWI servicemen, across 30 cemeteries.

The WW1 serviceman to be given a headstone:

John Bald 1877 (of Templers) – 1943, Gawler.

Served 50th Battalion, including legendary battle at Villiers Bretonneux, April, 1918.

John Patrick Dwyer Grace 1896 (Victoria) – 1971

Served 24 Battalion (13th reinforcements). Western front in France and Belgium.

Albert Horace Hillman, 1895 (Gawler) -1946

Served 10th Battalion then 5th Ambulance in 1918.

Roy Sydney Loader, 1898 – 1955.

Served 43rd Infantry Battalion.

John Frederick William Matz, 1884 (Sheoak Log) – 1937.

Served 32nd Battalion, battles of Ypres, Menin Rd and Polygon Wood, Belgium.

William Nicholas Starkey, 1887 (Kent, UK) – 1951.

Served 11 Field Ambulance. Western Front, including Ploegsteert, Messines, Charing Cross, Ypres (Flanders Ridge), the Somme and Villers Bretonneux.

Victor William Templer 1877 – 1935

10th Battalion (16th reinforcements) then later 3rd Field Ambulance, France and Belgium.

David Crosbie, 1888 – 1956.

23rd Lighthorse on enlistment. 48th Battalion then 3rd Australian Light Railway Operating Corp.