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Home soil for Diggers who never came back

Special gesture: David and Sharon Thomas, of Mt Claremont. Picture: Steve Ferrier/The West Australian

It came in a specially made little square container.

The container was covered with World War I references and decorated with shells, including one painted with a scene of the first Anzac fleet leaving Albany, and a list of ships' names.

And inside the box were several good handfuls of sand.

The box had been taken all the way to Gallipoli from WA by David and Sharon Thomas, of Mt Claremont.

And on a beach not far from Anzac Cove, where so many Diggers fell so far from home, Mr Thomas opened the box and poured out some sand which he had scooped up from Albany.

Mr Thomas, who spent 21 years in the military, said the gesture was his way of taking a little bit of home to the Diggers who never made it home.

He had come up with the idea when attending commemorations in Albany marking the departure of the first Anzac fleet.

Friends Roger and Julie Mills, of Kendenup, had made and decorated the box.

For Mr Thomas it was also a way of paying tribute to the military service of his grandfathers.

His mother's father, Arthur Chilcott, fought in the Boer War at the start of the 19th century, as well as at the Western Front in WWI. Mr Thomas' other grandfather, Clarence Thomas, served in France in the 29th Battalion and was seriously wounded twice.

But unlike many others, they both made it back to Australia.