Next of kin plaque: Private Reginald John Cato, 56th 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 'REGINALD JOHN CATO'. A checker's mark '20' is stamped behind the lion's left rear paw.

Born in Narrandera, New South Wales, Reginald John Cato was employed as a railway clerk in Albury when he enlisted in the AIF on 8 May 1916. He had previously trained as a signaller in the militia. After basic training in Goulburn Cato was posted a private, service number 2402, to the 5th Reinforcements for 56th Battalion. The unit sailed from Sydney on 30 September, aboard HMAT A60 Aeneas, arriving in England on 19 November.

After further specialist training in England in signals Cato joined his battalion on the Somme in France on 12 February 1917. He was killed at Louverval on 2 April, during a battle in which his battalion suffered over 200 casualties. Cato was initially buried in the Chafours Wood British Cemetery near Bapaume, but his body was exhumed in 1920 and reinterred in the Vaulx Hill Cemetery. This commemorative plaque was sent to his father, J H Cato, in 1922.