Next of kin plaque : Sapper Ernest James Oliver, 1st Australian Tunnelling Company, AIF

Bronze next of kin plaque, showing on the obverse, Britannia holding a laurel wreath, the British lion, dolphins, a spray of oak leaves and the words 'HE DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR' around the edge. Beneath the main figures, the British lion defeats the German eagle. The initials 'ECP', for the designer Edward Carter Preston appear above the lion's right forepaw. A raised rectangle above the lion's head bears the name 'ERNEST JAMES OLIVER'.

Born in 1890 at Stuart Town, New South Wales, Ernest James Oliver was employed as a labourer at Lithgow when he enlisted in the AIF on 24 January 1916. He had previously been rejected for service for refusing to be vaccinated. After initial training he was posted a sapper, service number 3660, to the 4th Tunnelling Company Headquarters. The unit left Sydney on 22 May aboard HMAT A69 Warilda.

After further training in England Oliver moved to France, where he transferred to the 1st Tunnelling Company on 20 August. Oliver was killed the following year, on 17 June 1917. Engaged in road building between Wytschaete and Wulverghem in Belgium, Oliver volunteered to carry rations to men in the trenches and died from concussion received from a shellburst. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres. His brother, Thomas, was killed in September 1917, while serving in the 20th Battalion. He, too, has no known grave.

This commemorative plaque was sent to Oliver's widowed mother, Elizabeth, in August 1922. Not only did she lose two of the three sons who served in the war, but also a married daughter, who died in the same year.