War medals made for the son of legendary Bega doctor Montague Frederic Evershed have been brought back to the region by one of the doctor's descendants.
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Dr Evershed arrived in Bega in 1873 and in his early days he was the only doctor in the area, assisting people between Tilba, the Victorian border and out to Bombala, and after he died the Bega Clock Tower was built in memory of him.
Tragedy had struck his family when his son Arthur Clifford Evershed was killed in action in France during World War 1.
Ahead of this year's Remembrance Day, earlier this month Dr Evershed's great-great granddaughter Robyn Evershed drove from Wagga Wagga to deliver a service medal as well as a "Death Penny", or Death Medal, made in honour of Arthur to the Bega Pioneers' Museum.
Robyn said the service medal was for her great uncle "Cliff" who was killed on the Somme and the "Death Pennies" were sent to families after the war.
"He didn't get any medal given out for great valor or anything, he was just a trooper really and I think they were all given service medals," she said.
Remembering Bega Valley Service Men of World War I: Battlefield and War Related Deaths by Pat Raymond states Arthur was born in June 1882 in Bega and attended the Bega District School before boarding the Kings School in Parramatta.
He was a sportsman who excelled at football, cricket and tennis, as well as billiards.
After school he was employed with the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney, then spent years working in banking at multiple locations, but his love of sport always kept him joining teams no matter what town he lived in.
He left Albury to enlist for the war effort in 1915 when he was 32, returning to Bega to farewell his family before he left for the front.
Arthur was killed in action on November 19, 1916, while serving in the fifth field artillery brigade, 13th battery.
Around midnight a shell exploded in his trench, killing three men and wounding several others and the next morning Arthur and the others were buried near the Longueval railway, but later the location of his grave was unable to be found.
Robyn has the medals after they were passed down the family line - her grandfather was the eldest of Dr Evershed's children and her father was the eldest of her grandfather's children.
READ THE STORY OF DOCTOR EVERSHED:
"So things have just gone from eldest to eldest, and I'm the eldest so I've ended up with them," she said.
"I've been trying to get here with these donations for quite some time, but what with one thing and another...
"I thought well now's the time, I can't leave these any longer because the medal and the little Bible I have will probably go to the tip if younger family members find them and think they're not worth keeping!"
Robyn said her father and grandparents would talk about Dr Evershed, and in her family they always just used to refer to him as "the old doctor".
