THE 11 soldiers gathered behind their Australian flag. It was 1916 and they were about to board the train for Sydney.

The flag, which appears in reverse as the Union Jack is on the right, carries the name of their home town of Bungendore, a small community in the NSW Southern Highlands.

Three of those soldiers did not return, remembered and mourned still by the families they left behind.

Andrew Chinnery, whose great uncle “Bren” Chinnery was one of the dead, said the battler ethos of country life meant the men knew they must step up when a job had to be done.

“They were proud of their work [on the land] and when they heeded the call [to arms] it was the same,” he said. “They were proud and their families were proud [when they went].”

Bungendore’s unexpectedly elaborate war memorial records that between 1914 and 1918 a total of 114 men and four women from the town and district served abroad.

One in five were killed in action or died as a result of wounds.

Dr Peter Pedersen, a former head of research at the Australian War Memorial and the government historian for the commemoration of the Anzac centenary on the Western Front, acknowledged the scale of Bungendore’s contribution but said it was not unusual.

“This is a story that could be told of almost any town or village in country Australia [during WWI],” he said.

“The regional basis for recruiting, the chance to stay with your mates, was an incentive to enlist. [But] If there was a particularly costly battle involving a unit drawn largely from one area the home community would suffer badly.”

He cited the devastating effect the battle for the Nek at Gallipoli had on the Western Australian communities from which many of the Light Horsemen had come.

"With that regiment went the flower of the youth of Western Australia, sons of the old pioneering families … Men known and popular, the best-loved leaders in sport and work in the West,” official war historian Charles Bean later wrote.

Bungendore also fell victim to “regional recruitment”. Most of those who joined in the latter part of 1915 and early 1916, including those in the photograph, were assigned to the 55th and the 56th Battalions.

“They arrived in France and Belgium just in time for some of the worst fighting of the war,” Dr Pedersen said.

There was also a domino effect. When one man enlisted other relatives would soon follow with Bungendore’s Cyril Smith enlisting on February 26, 1916, his cousin, Bill Smith, on March 14, 1916 and his brother, Reuben Clarence Smith, on March 16, 1916.

The Gallaghers, who sent three nurses and three warriors, have the second highest number of names on the town honour roll.

Seven Taylors, five Smiths, four Donnellys, three Flynns, three Guys, three Heaths and three Overends volunteered.

An inevitable consequence was individual families suffered multiple fatalities. Two Champions (sons of the local minister), two Lees and two McKays accounted for a quarter of all those killed from the town. A third Champion boy survived.

The three men in the 1916 photograph who did not return were Cyril Smith, “Bren” Chinnery and Ernest Lee.

A fourth, Bill Smith, was shot in the right foot and sent home a cripple after having his toes amputated.

A fifth, Lance Corporal Reuben Clarence Smith (who is wrongly listed on the Australian War Memorial’s caption for the picture as having been killed) was awarded the Military Medal.

The citation read: “He was in charge of a Lewis Gun section during the attack on Peronne on September 1, 1918. They came under heavy artillery, rifle and machine gun fire, causing severe casualties. Private Smith reorganised the section skilfully and, by collecting men from completely disorganised sections, brought his own team to strength and handled them coolly and effectively. His personal bravery, initiative and devotion to duty set a splendid example which had its effect on the other men.”

Dr Pedersen said the citation was significant in that it recognised leadership as well as bravery.

While the citation refers to Corporal Smith as a private, his army record states he had been promoted to Lance Corporal on July 22, 1918.

Helen Murphy, Corporal Smith’s granddaughter, said war was a forbidden subject when she was a girl.

Reuben Clarence, known to the family as “Pop”, had six sons, all of whom served during WWII.

One, Anthony Clarence Smith, was so badly wounded he never recovered. Anthony had lied about his age and was 16 when he joined up.

Mrs Murphy, now 76, said the price her uncle paid broke her grandmother’s heart.

“He was bed-bound for months after he came home,” she said. “That’s why we never talked about the war.”

Her husband, Ray Murphy, 80, is related to Ernest Lee, who didn’t come back from WWI, and Thomas Murphy, who did.

Mr Chinnery said while some Australians are inclined to make light of the Diggers’ decision to fight for the Empire that was the way things were in 1914-1918.

“It was their decision; they were doing what they chose to do and we should respect that,” he said.