His mother would walk him to Creswick Cemetery on Sundays visit his nanna’s grave. But his mother rarely spoke about her late husband, Albert, or her little son Ronald, who had died at only four weeks of age.

Albert was born in Creswick in 1885 and was the 137^th person to enlist in World War I, fighting in Gallipoli on two separate occasions from 1914 before being discharged with a shoulder injury a month before armistice in 1919.

Mr Jayne’s mother told him his father had been gassed during the war. That may have been the cause of the illness that led to his death in 1945. He was buried in an unmarked grave, nothing more than a patch of earth, in the same spot that Ronald had been buried in 1936.

His wife and two young children weren’t able to afford any markings for his grave.

It wasn’t until he was aged 40 that Mr Jayne discovered when he had been visiting his nanna, he’d also been visiting his dad and Ronald.

Now 79, Mr Jayne is finally able to see his father properly laid to rest, thanks to an elegant grave just installed by the War Graves Commission.

The project came about when Mr Jayne’s nephew, Barry Paterson, started delving into his family’s history and started speaking with Wendy Olhsen from the Creswick Cemetery Trust, who helped him with the information he needed to make an application for a headstone and plaque.

Initially, his request was rejected until he spoke with the Creswick-Smeaton RSL, who contacted local politicians Catherine King and Louise Staley for help.

Mr Jayne was clearly emotional ahead of a rededication ceremony on Sunday attended by Albert’s children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, along with Ms King and Ms Staley.

“It was a real shock to me,” the Miners Rest resident said of hearing his father would be given a headstone. “He’s laid here all these years.”