Wimmera Association for Genealogy has led work for a permanent memorial to honour the 406 people buried in Horsham Cemetery who served in the war.

The project is part of the Anzac Centenary.

Association president Ken Flack said while those who died in the war were memorialised at Horsham’s Sawyer Park cenotaph, returned servicemen and women were not recognised in such a way, and many were buried in unmarked graves.

“We thought, ‘Why should some who served in the war have recognition while others don’t?’” he said.

“We started working on the project at the start of this year with support from a number of other groups.

“We had to find burial records, then check that with war records, and obituaries and death notices.

“It has been a big job – a community effort.

“It’s not just something with a few names on it – it’s much more than that.”

Mr Flack said the group worked with Horsham Rural City Council, the cemetery trust, Horsham Historical Society, and Horsham RSL, as well as business owners and other community members.

He said the group’s original intent was to place a marker on the unmarked graves of returned servicemen and women.

“We then found out we needed permission from a living relative to do this, which was pretty much impossible,” he said.

“So we started looking at a memorial.

“The only criteria to be part of the memorial was that people must have served in the First World War, and be buried in Horsham.

“Many of the people represented Australia in the war, but there are quite a few British, Canadian and New Zealand veterans, who served and then made their homes in Horsham.

The association will unveil the memorial at the cemetery on November 11 at 2pm.

Mr Flack said anyone was welcome to attend the commemoration service.

The association received an Anzac Centenary community grant for the project.