Next of kin plaque : Lance Corporal Hugh Lamont, 24th Battalion, 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 'HUGH LAMONT'.

Born near Moe, Victoria 1891, Farquhar Hugh (Hughie) Lamont was employed as a farm hand at Warracknabeal when he enlisted in the AIF on 16 March 1915 using the name Hugh Lamont. He was posted a private, service number 658, to C Company of the newly raised 24th Battalion, at the end of April. The battalion left Melbourne on 10 May, aboard HMAT A14 Euripides.

After further training in Egypt the battalion arrived at Gallipoli in September where it fought mainly in the Lone Pine area. Lamont was promoted lance corporal on 2 December, several weeks before the battalion was withdrawn to Egypt.

In January 1916 Lamont contracted influenza and spent three weeks in hospital followed by a period of convalescence. In France the battalion was mainly billeted at L’Hallobeau near Armentieres, where it undertook training as well as sending work parties to near by Bois Grenier. Shortly before midnight on 27 May a shot was heard in the C Company lines. Lamont was found dying from a self inflicted wound to the head. He was 25 years old.

A Court of Enquiry the following day could find no reason why he might have committed suicide with 'complete absence of either motive or premeditation disclosed by the evidence' and attributed the incident to 'a temporary aberration of the mind'. Lamont is buried in the Erquinghem-Lys Churchyard Extension near Armentieres.

This commemorative plaque was sent to his widowed mother, Ellen, in September 1922.