Centenary Cottage Museum memorabilia from local WW1 soldier Tom O'Connor will now take pride of place in the display cabinet in the foyer of Tenterfield's Soldiers Memorial Hall after the artefacts were ceremoniously handed over to RSL Sub-branch president David Stewart by the Tenterfield History Society, at the request of the O'Connor family.
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The artefacts included the soldier's so-called Dead Man's Penny (complete in original packaging which Mr Stewart hadn't seen before), personal diary, a copy of the O'Connor family tree, letters and Christmas and birthday cards to family, army dog tags and his cloth scapular medal, which was essentially his Roman Catholic dog tag.
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Society secretary Chris Moon said it was an unusual request but one the society was honoured to comply with, in respect of the family's wishes.
Thomas William O'Connor was born in Tenterfield into a large family on November 12, 1892. He died on Christmas Eve 1916, aged just 24, after succumbing to wounds received four months earlier on the battlefields of Flanders.
Or "another Tenterfield native gone to swell the victims of the war", as described in the Tenterfield Star shortly thereafter.
On accepting the donation, Mr Stewart said he had received a surprise visit from relatives Janelle and Don Shaw who felt that the RSL's WW1 display cabinet was a more-fitting home for the memorabilia.
Mr O'Connor was a keen sportsman and played cricket for Tenterfield, ending up in the Sportsman's Company (with Mr Stewart said may have been a recruiting ploy) of the 7th Reinforcements of the 20th Battalion.
