In 1917 Private Alexander Mathew Leckie was in Egypt with the eighth Light Horse Regiment when he posed for a picture in front of its infamous Pyramids and Sphinx.
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Nearly 100 years later it was a picture his niece Yvonne Bromley would recreate in almost the same spot, in tribute to her late uncle’s service.
A farmer, originally from Finley in NSW a 24-year-old Private Leckie enlisted to serve his country as it battled through WWI in the October of 1916.
He would not return to his home until August 26, 1919, but was lucky to return home at all when so many did not.
That sacrifice and effort made not only by her Uncle Alex but by many of the men in her extended family during both World Wars is a point of enormous pride for Mrs Bromley - but will forever be marred by the callous theft of the war medals she inherited over the years from her Walla Avenue home in the April of last year.
Amongst the collection were not only the medals of her Uncle Alex, but those of her late father Ted Boreland and his brother Alex who fought in both WWI and WWII, her brother-in-law Jim Bromley who was in the airforce during WWII and her father-in-law Ted Bromley, who fought in WWI before taking up his soldier settler farm on Bromley road in 1923.
It is a family history rich with service, something Mrs Bromley would commemorate each Anzac Day – wearing the medals her family earned in remembrance of those who fought for their country.
Mrs Bromley reiterated her plea for the medals to be returned to her last week after her unsuccessful Christmas appeal for mercy.
“I would like to wear my family medals on Anzac Day as always,” she said.
“If only they were returned to me, please.”
Mrs Bromley previously told The Area News she would offer a substantial reward if the medals were returned to her.
"I am devastated and brokenhearted that all my family fought in both world wars, these medals gave my family pride, and now they have been taken and I am devastated,” she previously said.
"Every time you handle these medals or look at them, remember a young boy took a bullet for them.” Anyone with information regarding the stolen war medals is urged to contact the Griffith Police Station.
