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Pilbara Anzac uncovered

Douglas Edgar with wife Charlotte and family friend Dot Hutton at a farm at Gingin in 1921.

A school project to commemorate the landing of the Anzacs at Gallipoli has turned up a surprising link between the ancestors of a Scottish family and one of the first pastoral families of the Pilbara.

Douglas Edgar is not someone many Pilbara residents would have heard of, but he is the only Anzac listed with the National Archives of Australia with a birthplace in the Hedland region.

Born on De Grey Station, a son of station co-founder Alec W Edgar, Mr Edgar is the great-great grandfather of six-year-old Molly Howell.

This month, Molly's grandfather, Ian Howell, the husband of Doug Edgar's granddaughter, started investigating the family's links to World War I after Molly needed the information for a memorial service at her primary school in Perth.

Mr Howell knew his own grandfather, Arthur Howell, was in the British Army during World War I, but little was known about Mr Edgar's involvement other than what was on his enlistment papers.

Mr Edgar's daughter, Sue Crabbe, has her father's diaries from the period but because of their fragile state, they have never been read in full.

Mrs Crabbe said when she was younger her father never spoke about his experiences after he enlisted at the age of 20 on January 26, 1916, and left from Melbourne on May 20, 1916.

Last week, she said she had recently found out her father, who was an 18-pound gunner in the 8th Field Artillery Brigade, had been gassed at one point during the war.

"In those days the men didn't do anything like cooking but he could cook potato soup, and I said to him: 'Where did you learn that?' And he said 'in France'," she said.

"With me, there was no discussion on the war at all."

From his research, Mr Howell established Mr Edgar arrived at the Western Front in 1916.

By cross-referencing the movements of Mr Edgar's company with war maps and his diary entries, Mr Howell has worked out that the Pilbara-born Anzac may have been involved in a number of important engagements, including the Battle of the Somme.

"A Lance Corporal like Doug was usually in charge of two guns or 12 men," he said.

"The most common gun used by the Allied armies was the 18-pounder - it was mounted on two wheels and drawn by six horses and it had a crew of six men."

Mr Howell said the most surprising discovery had been working out from war maps that Arthur Howell's unit was next to Mr Edgar's at the Battle of Amiens in 1918.

Although it is not known if the two men ever met, they were both in charge of 18-pound artillery guns.

"Molly is going to be really surprised that she had two great-great-grandfathers, both in the artillery, both fighting in the Somme battles - one Australian Army, and one from the British Army," he said.

"We can never be sure that they were both present during the battles - they might have been on leave or in hospital - but we know from Doug's war diary that he definitely talks about being in the Amiens area in the second quarter of 1918."

After returning from the war, Mr Edgar continued farming in the Glentromie region and was part of the Home Guard during World War II.

Memorial services

Hedland

Dawn service at Port Hedland War Memorial from 5.30am, followed by a march to Marapikurrinya Park.

Newman

Dawn service at Shire of East Pilbara offices at 6am with an earlier march leaving from the BHP Billiton town office at 5.45am.

Marble Bar

Memorial service at RSL Park from 5.45am.

Nullagine

March from water tanks at 6am to Lynas Lookout for memorial service.

Community events

Hedland

Free breakfast and live music from 6.30am-9.30am at Marapikurrinya Park.

Anzac Sporting exhibition featuring an Australia v New Zealand netball clash at the Kevin Scott Oval in South Hedland at 9.30am and junior and masters Aussie rules games at the Colin Matheson Oval, 9.30am-12.30pm.

North Pilbara Football League Anzac clash between Port Hedland Rovers and South Hedland Swans at Colin Matheson Oval from 5pm on Friday.

Anzac Triathlon from 7am on Sunday at the South Hedland Aquatic Centre.

Newman

Gunfire breakfast at the Newman Hotel from 7.30am.

The Pilbara Regiment A Troop opens its wet mess for a barbecue with two-up from 11am to 3pm.

Marble Bar

Community barbecue breakfast at RSL Park after the memorial service.

Nullagine

Community barbecue breakfast hosted by Millennium Mines.