Ian Bignall reckons he has cumulatively spent about one month, of his life, doing a fairly repetitive circuit through the rows of Manilla's cemetery during the last couple of years

It's nowhere near the amount of time some people have spent in the cemetery.

Some have been laid in rest for more than five decades in unmarked graves, almost forgotten.

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Mr Bignall, the RSL sub-branch secretary, has spearheaded a project to install Australian flags on the headstones of all of the ex-servicemen's graves.

This year, 263 flags will be fluttering on Anzac Day in the Manilla cemetery.

It's the second year Mr Bignall has put out the flags and in the intervening months, poring over military and cemetery records and running his countless laps of the site, he has found more than 80 additional graves belonging to ex-servicemen.

Fourteen of those graves were unmarked.

So Mr Bignall manufactured some crosses out of scrap metal and had a sign-writer add the names, military number and date of death to ensure they didn't go unrecognised.

"It's sad to look here where some of these graves have been unmarked for 50 years," he said.

"Now they have a cross and they'll have a flag flying on Anzac Day."

It has been a time-consuming process for Mr Bignall but he was very certain in his motivation behind the project

"It's something as a returned serviceman, you know these people gave up a lot of their time and they were prepared to die for their country and we should not forget them," he said.

"It's just as simple as that, we will remember them."

Mr Bignall will spend his Easter Sunday popping flags on headstones in preparation for Anzac Day next week.

He hoped the sight of all the flags flying would be a stirring image for the town.

"They're in every corner of the cemetery and every denomination and it is quite something to see," he said.

"In my research, there was over 700 people in WWII who were born in Manilla and the population around then was about 2000.

"That's an amazing percentage of people born in Manilla that enlisted."

The Manilla project is part of a nationwide campaign, 'honour our fallen', which aimed to put a flag on every military grave in Australia.

The Manilla RSL has helped Anzac Day organisers in Bendemeer identify 20 graves in the village's cemetery and there is some desire to expand the project in the North West.

"I had 20 years in Gunnedah and I know a lot of the sub-branch people there and I will probably go and help them next year if they are interested," Mr Bignall said.

"I have contacted Boggabri and Shirley Coote who did the cemetery records here has records for Boggabri, Gunnedah, Tambar Springs and Mullaley, so they could be all on board next year."

Mr Bignall said a large committee would need to be formed before any thought of a Tamworth project was entertained.

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