An accurate count was impossible in the darkness, but people came out and were there at 6am to remember the fallen.

For Brian Smith and his wife Sadrene, this year was a special trip and they went to great lengths to be here. They flew a private plane up from Anglesea in Victoria to remember two brothers who died in France during World War I, and whose names appear on Inverell’s cenotaph.

“They were Francis Norman and Archie Thomas Smith, and they enlisted here in town,” Brian said.

Both were Brian’s grand uncles and they have become part of his family folklore. They were killed separately, one on the Somme and the other at Ypres during 1917 and 1918.

“They were miners, I think, from Copeton. They joined the enthusiasm of the whole thing and went off to join up with Leslie Moreshead’s 33rd Battalion, which he’d arranged to assemble in the Armidale Showgrounds,” Brian said.

“I’ve always loved the story that having enlisted here, they were on the way to Armidale when the driver bogged the car. It meant they were absent without leave before they’d even held a rifle, I suppose.”

Brian said he had always been interested in finding out just what sort of car it was and where the two had been bogged.

“I’m fascinated to find out where that was. They say in their letter it was about eight miles from Inverell on the old Armidale road, so we may just do that on this journey (up here),” he said.

Brian said he is not a history buff, but it has been a part of his family history for some time.

“To lose two boys is quite a traumatic thing,” he said.