Next of kin plaque : Private James Greig, 20th 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 'JAMES GREIG'.

Born in Dumfries, Scotland, James Maxwell Greig was employed as a hospital attendant at the Parramatta Asylum when enlisted in the AIF at Granville, New South Wales, as James Greig, on 18 July 1915. After initial training he was posted a private, service number 5458, to the 14th Reinforcements to the 20th Battalion. He embarked from Sydney for overseas service on 22 August 1916, aboard HMAT A18 Wiltshire, and arrived in England on 13 October. After further training Greig joined his battalion in France in February 1917 and was posted to 16th Platoon, D Company.

Greig, nicknamed 'old Jim' by his fellow soldiers, died at Hangard Wood on 7 April 1918, in an action in which 192 of the 300 men of Battalion's C and D Companies became casualties. Witnesses reported that Greig, who had been shot through the back, staggered into a machine gun emplacement and collapsed 'in great agony'. It was raining heavily, 'all was confusion, we could do nothing for him and had to advance'. The Germans later retook the ground and Greig's body was lost. He was 32. His name is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.

This memorial plaque was sent to his widow, Elsie May Greig, whom he had married in 1915, in December 1922.