Next of Kin plaque : Sergeant George Stanley Blumer, 45th Battalion, AIF

Bronze next of kin plaque, showing on the obverse, Britannia holding a laurel wreath, the British lion, dolphins, a spray of oak leaves and the words 'HE DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR' around the edge. Beneath the main figures, the British lion defeats the German eagle. The initials 'ECP', for the designer Edward Carter Preston appear above the lion's right forepaw. A raised rectangle above the lion's head bears the name 'GEORGE STANLEY BLUMER'. In original folded cardboard sleeve and with accompanying message of sympathy from King George V.

Born in Tamworth, New South Wales, George Stanley Blumer was employed in Sydney as a wool buyer when he enlisted in the AIF on 17 August 1914. After initial training he was posted a private, service number 1508, to H Company, 3rd Battalion. The battalion sailed from Sydney on 20 October aboard HMAT A14 Euripides.

Further training took place in Egypt until the battalion landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. Blumer was promoted lance corporal, then corporal, on the same day, 1 May. On 20 June he was evacuated to Mudros suffering from an infected ingrown toenail. While there he developed an abscessed tooth and other dental problems and was evacuated first to Egypt, then to Malta and finally to England, where he arrived on 15 September. A further bout of illness meant that he did not return to his battalion, by now back in Egypt after the Gallipoli campaign, on 14 February 1916.

Blumer transferred to 45th Battalion at the end of March. He was promoted sergeant at the end of May, shortly before the battalion moved to France for service on the Western Front. He survived the battalion's first major action at Pozieres in 1916, and subsequent fighting in Belgium and on the Somme, but was killed at Messines Ridge on 7 June 1917. He was 28 years old. Although his burial location was formally recorded with a map reference his body could not be located after the war for interment in a war cemetery and his name is recorded on the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres in Belgium.

This commemorative plaque was sent to his father, Luke Blumer, in August 1922. Blumer's bother, Lieutenant John James Blumer, served with 19th Battalion and survived the war.