George Adam Matchett (known as Adam), was 21-years-old at the outbreak of World War One.
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A motor driver by trade, he lived with his family at Wychitella, a property 18 miles from Dubbo that his parents had purchased in 1912.
Adam had two younger brothers, James and William, and a baby sister, Phyllis.
As were many Dubbo citizens at the time, Adam's family were keen tennis players and members of the Dubbo District Tennis Association.
Adam himself was an excellent tennis player and a champion in the making, but like many young and idealistic men he 'heard the call of duty and patriotism' and enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on February 15, 1915.
After several months training, Private Matchett embarked from Sydney on HMAT Vestalia, bound for Egypt.
Allocated to the Ammunition Reserve of the 4th Light Horse Brigade, there he met Private Lionel Oscar McCrae, and the two quickly became friends.
They stuck together from then on, sailing together for France and the Western Front in March 1916.
Following in the footsteps of his older brother, 19-year-old James Thomas Matchett, a wheat farmer, enlisted in February 1916. Jim, to his family and friends, joined the 1st Machine Gun Company, and sailed for England in May 1916.
While Jim was undergoing further training in England, Adam and Lionel were drivers with the 20th Company, Army Service Corps.
Not content to serve with Army Service Corps, Adam Matchett and Lionel McCrae volunteered to transfer to the 18th Infantry Battalion in September 1916, as 'they were so short of men' after the Battle of Pozieres.
While military records tell us that George Adam Matchett was killed in action on November 8, 1916, on the Somme battlefields, it is from Lionel McCrae that we know that Adam was smiling and talking to his mate, moments before the shell that killed him landed nearby.
Lionel tells us that 'he was buried in a soldier's grave with many mates to keep him company'.
Lionel wrote to Adam's mother Ada, to assure her of her son's courage and devotion to duty, to let the family know that he was with friends when he died, and that his keepsakes were saved and would be returned to the family.
Hopefully, someone showed Lionel McCrae the same kindness when he was killed by a shell burst on September 20, 1917, just two months after he was awarded the Military Medal for bravery.
Neither Adam or Lionel have a known grave.
Jim Matchett was more fortunate than his brother.
Although wounded once and hospitalised several times from illness, he survived the war, attaining the rank of Sergeant.
In 1918 he went to train at the Australian Flying Corps, but failed the medical examination due to defective hearing and a heart condition brought on by life in the trenches.
Jim returned to serve out the war with the 1st Machine Gun Battalion. He arrived back in Australia in 1919.
Returning home to the family property at Wychitella, Jim Matchett lived in Dubbo for the rest of his life, and is buried at the Old Dubbo Cemetery.