Collection relating to NX60246 Francis Oakenden Roberts, 2/17 Australian Infantry Battalion.

A memorial card, entitled "Remember Tobruch", dedicated to NX60246 Lance Corporal (LCpl) Francis Oakenden "Barney" Roberts, 2/17 Australian Infantry Battalion. The left image is of the Tobruk Memorial built by Australian engineers and dedicated on October 1941 to the memory of the men who died in the defence of Tobruk. The right image is LCpl Roberts' grave marker at Tobruk War Cemetary. A handwritten inscription on the verso of the card states "Your dead, but mine too. After sunset on that last night I went alone to their graves to say good-bye. The guns were still, the sky clear and the cool of the night close at hand. They lay in peace for their long "stand-down". Lt Col John Crawford. Comd. 2/17 Aust. Inf. Bn."

A newsagent from Braidwood, New South Wales, LCpl Roberts enlisted on 13 Jul 1940 in Goulburn, New South Wales. He embarked for service overseas on 3 February 1941, undergoing training in the Middle East before arriving in Libya in mid-July 1941. LCpl Roberts was wounded in action on 25 September 1941 at Tobruk, Libya, and died in hospital two days on 27 September 1941.