Corporal 'Wal' Murray's calm self-sacrifice

"When I saw it I could remember if from the old church from when I was a kid, but I never knew what happened to it," he said.

He dusted it off, found a frame for it, and put it on the wall so everyone could see it.

"Everyone looks at it ... but no one has said anything about it," he said.

Read also: From Gallipoli to the UK: Digger survived both World Wars

The plaque says simply: "In loving memory of Rev W.A Murray, a former minister at the church between 1914-16. Died in the cause of humanity, Passchendale, October 12, 1917. Aged 32 years."

The detail was lost on Mr Skinner who decided to visit the war memorial to find out. They told him all the information he needed was online.

"But I don't have a computer and I don't do 'online' so they took me downstairs and ... showed me a book where there was correspondence between him and his wife," he said.

It was a real experience to find something written in 1917 linked to the plaque and to the former Methodist Minister's life and sacrifice.

The file cobbled together in Corporal Winsleigh Alexander Murray's name includes letters from other members of the 35th battalion, as well as official records and dispatches.

Read also: Together again, Australians prove Anzac spirit lives on

There are a few different versions of events within those letters as to how and where he was injured, and whether he was taken prisoner or died in battle.

Some said he was shot in the buttocks, before being shot in the stomach. Others said he had a broken leg. All agree that he asked the stretcher bearers to put someone else ahead of him, sacrificing himself for a stranger.

"I just feel that, he was a Stockton bloke, he was killed, and in all my years at the church there's never been anything said about it," Mr Skinner said. "There's probably thousands and thousands of people that should be mentioned but I just thought, let's honour this person's memory.

"Nobody wants to die but if he was prepared to meet his maker, ahead of someone else, that proves to me that he has got a bit of metal."

It was about 7.30am on October 12, 1917, during the attack at Passchendale in WWI, that Corporal 'Wal' Murray was shot. He'd been overseas for less than 12 months, having left Sydney on the HMAT Anchises on January 24.

A fellow soldier who said he helped bandage Murray's wounds said Murray lay in a shell hole for a couple of hours. When he started to make his way for the nearest dressing station, he was shot a second time - whether by sniper or machine gun, he wasn't sure.

Read also: WWI solider resting place found in France

"I went and spoke to him, and told him I would send along a stretcher," the soldier said, but he was later told that when they went to him, he told them to take someone else.

"I was told we did not hold the ground."

An extract from another soldier's letter confirmed that when Murray was wounded, and the stretcher bearers went to carry him out, he said: 'No, take some of the others worse," and insisted they attend to someone else.

"They left him, something happened, I cannot mention here, but in our haste and owing to heavy fire he was taken prisoner. I don't know how he is, but what a gentleman he is. We were also the best of pals."

Read also: Send your message of support this Anzac Day

However, Corporal Murray was not taken prisoner. with officials later confirming he was killed in action.

In his letter detailing the events, Sergeant C.W Howard described Murray as one of the finest men he had ever met. "By an act of calm, self-sacrifice, he gave up his life for another man," he said. A sacrifice others can once again honour and remember, thanks to Mr Skinner's back-stage discovery.