Next of Kin plaque : Private Raymond Holstein Pflaum, 32 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 'RAYMOND HOLSTEIN PFLAUM'. A checker's mark, '17', is impressed behind the lion's rear left paw. The back has been modified at a later date by the addition of two lengths of copper wire soldered across the plaque and bent over at each end.

Bronze next of kin plaque issued to the family of 161 Private Raymond 'Ray' Holstein Pflaum. The son of Theodore and Mary Pflaum, he was working as a shop assistant in his home town of Blumberg, South Australia when he enlisted in the AIF on 21 July 1915 at the age of 18.

Joining A Company of the 32nd Battalion, he embarked on board HMT Geelong at Adelaide on 18 November 1915. He arrived in France with the battalion on 23 June 1916 after spending six months training in Egypt.

On 19 July 1916, during the Battle of Fromelles, the 32nd Battalion was involved in an attack on Fleurbaix. Pflaum was in the first wave of the attack when he was wounded by shrapnel to the stomach. His brother, Corporal Theodor Milton Pflaum of the 25th Company, Australian Machine Gun Corps, also fought in the battle and recorded in his diary: "At 6 o'clock on this most memorable day in all my life (by miles) the first line, consisting of A Company and 2 platoons (9 and 11) of 32nd Battalion hopped our parapets as the Charge was blown and went for their lives...Dozens of fellows fell on the parapet and on their way over they lost very heavily, having to pass through a hell of Artillery fire, shrapnel, high explosives and a curtain of machine gun fire...our artillery had shifted to their [German] second line but hundreds of shells fell short and caught our own trenches and our chaps...[We reached the first German trench where] while my men were getting their wind, my attention was drawn to a wounded man alongside of me...It was Ray. I ran down to him and was told he had got a piece of shrapnel in the stomach just as he was about to get into their [German] trench. He was quite conscious and by his appearance didn't seem too badly hit. One of the 32nd fellows helped me to put him into a dugout...I managed to get him a flask of whisky and a mouthful of that seemed to make his spirits go up. He was not in a great deal of pain whilst lying still, but could not bear to be moved."

Theodor had to find a position for his machine gun, and had to leave his brother. Due to a German counter attack, Theodor was eventually ordered to retreat. Raymond Pflaum was left to be picked up by German stretcher bearers but died of his wounds later that night. He was originally listed by the AIF as wounded in action and presumed to be a prisoner of war. Early information from Germany led the Army to list his date of death as 24 November 1916 but his family later received his identity disc and information from Germany that stated that he died on 19 July 1916.

Pflaum was buried in a mass grave at Pheasants Wood, which was only discoveredin 2009. His remains were successfully identified in 2010 and he was reburied at the Fromelles (Pheasant Woods) Military Cemetery.