The family of fallen World War I digger Henry Huntsman always thought his remains were in a Belgian paddock "being ploughed up all the time".
So when his great niece Lisa Mahony got a call at her Melbourne home in March saying his grave had been found at a Belgian war cemetery she found it hard to believe.
The call came from Andrew Pittaway of the volunteer research group Fallen Diggers who with fellow enthusiast Dennis Frank has been scouring war records to determine where lost Australian soldiers may be buried.
"We thought he was in a paddock somewhere being ploughed up all the time," Ms Mahony said of Private Huntsman, a 24-year-old farmer from Victoria who died in a shell blast during the Battle of Polygon Wood on September 20, 1917.
The same shell killed Private Charles Eacott, also aged 24 and also a Victorian farmer.
On Sunday the pair were remembered at a ceremony at the Birr Cross Roads Cemetery near Ieper along with Private John "Jock" Neilson of NSW who was killed in the Battle of Passchendaele aged 27 on October 10, 1917.
The graves of the three were identified as being at the cemetery by the Fallen Diggers researchers.
Relatives of the soldiers travelled from Australia to attend Sunday's ceremony and unveil new headstones bearing the names of the men who previously lay under stones reading Known Unto God.
Ms Mahony told AAP that her great uncle, known as Harry, had left school at 16 to work on a farm at Loch and was known as a good footballer who also enjoyed his cricket.
She said his mother, who ran a millinery business, was devastated by the news of her son's death.
"As soon as she found out he had died she stopped working and wore black for the rest of her life."
Private Neilson, from West Wallsend in NSW, was an engine driver in the mines before enlisting for the war.
His great nephew Mark Neilson, from Sydney, said finding his grave "brought him back into the family, made us aware of him".
"Reading his brothers' letters to the authorities trying to find where he was, it was obviously very heartbreaking for them and I guess this may bring about some sort of fulfilment in the family," he said.
Private Eacott's great nephew Bill Eacott said knowing where he now lay was reassuring.
"Not knowing and then to have somewhere to come to is just incredible."
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