He enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy on June 3 1913 as a Boy Second Class and trained on ‘HMAS Tingira’.

The three-masted sailing ship, formerly the ‘Sobraon’, was launched in 1866 and used as an immigrant ship and a reformatory for delinquent boys before being acquired by the Navy in 1912 for training purposes.

Varcoe left the Tingira on September 22, 1914 as a signal boy and was drafted to ‘HMAS Cerberus’ and ‘HMAS Pioneer’ before joining the destroyer ‘HMAS Parramatta’ on April 14 1917. By then a signalman, he served on Parramatta until July 20 1919.

The Parramatta was one of six Navy river class destroyers based in Brindisi, Italy. On November 15 1917 the Italian steamer ‘Orione’ was torpedoed while on passage from Valona to Brindisi.

The Parramatta came to the rescue of the steamer’s passengers and crew. Varcoe played a leading part in the salvage of the stricken ship which involved an incident-packed three-day tow.

During this time the ‘Orione’ survived a torpedo attack, a gale and an encounter with a mine.

Varcoe, Lieutenant Cyril Hill and Engineer-Lietenant Bridge (all from the Parramatta) went aboard the ‘Orione’ to report whether she could be salvaged.

The Parramatta took ‘Orione’ in tow, signalling by wireless for a tug. But an enemy submarine was on watch and discharged a torpedo while the tow line was being secured. The submarine then broke surface and dived again directly beneath the Parramatta.

The Australian destroyer ‘Yarra’ was sent to chase her but could do nothing so returned and aided the Parramatta in towing.

At 5.30pm the Italian tug ‘Marritimo’ appeared and the two Australian destroyers went back to their patrol, leaving the ‘Orione’ (with Varcoe, Hill and Bridge still on board) to be escorted to port by French and Italian destroyers.

During the night a gale sprang up and the tow rope broke time after time. The ‘Marritimo’ disappeared about 11pm and about midnight the ‘Orione’ was drifting rapidly towards the Italian coast.

The ship was forced to drop both anchors in a mine field. At dawn a horned mine was discovered bobbling about six feet from the Orione’s bow.

More dramas followed but the ship fortunately survived. The Australians on board were mentioned in the Italian naval order of the day. Varcoe, for his efforts in maintaining communications on the ‘Orione’, was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

Of the 1071 “Tingira Boys” who served in the Navy in World War I, Varcoe was the only one to win a bravery award. Tingira trainees made up about 10 per cent of all Navy WWI ratings.

In April 1923, by then a leading signalman, Varcoe signed on again for another five years in the Navy.

He was discharged from the navy at Sydney on April 8 1928. He died in October 1948. A portrait of John William Varcoe, painted by Sir John Longstaff, hangs in the Australian War Memorial.

His image on the Martin Place cenotaph was created by Sir Bertrand Mackennal, an expatriate Australian sculptor who designed the tomb of Edward VII at Windsor and the medals for the Olympic Games of 1908.

Mackennal also constructed the statues of Cardinal Patrick Moran and Archbishop Michael Kelly which stand at the southern end of St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney.

The statues of the soldier and sailor had not been completed when the Martin Place cenotaph was officially dedicated on August 8 1927. They were later unveiled before a large crowd on February 21 1929 in the presence of Sir John Monash.

The model for the soldier, Corporal William Darby, was Irish born and served at Gallipoli and in France and Flanders, first as a stretcher bearer with the 15th Battalion and later with the AAMC in 4 Field Ambulance. He had previously served in the Spanish-American War.

Darby was 60 years of age when he modelled for the soldier’s figure but had, it was said, “the physique of an athlete of 30”and had been much in demand as an artist’s model in the Sydney art community.

Mackennal was impressed by Darby’s athletic bearing and the stern, warrior-like cut of his face.

Darby, portrayed in tin hat and, rough un-ironed serge uniform and the puttees of the 1st AIF, was critical of the pose of the soldier and sailor on the cenotaph saying the figures should not have been “at ease” but “at rest on arms reversed”.

Darby died in Brisbane in January 1936, aged 66 years.