Australian soldiers who survived the battlefield only to succumb to injury or disease while waiting to return home have remained in their Belgium graves uncelebrated for more than 100 years.
That was until Belgian historian Claire Dujardian's research into her own family led to the discovery of a set of wooden bunk-beds in her grandparents' home in Charleroi, slept in by two Queenslanders for months after World War One.
The soldiers were billeted with local families and worked as police officers from December 1918 until May 1919.
The city of Charleroi was relatively untouched by the impact of war and became home to Australian soldiers from five battalions while they were waiting to be sent home in the order in which they arrived.
But 102 of the soldiers did not make it back. Seventy-four men died of complications of the Spanish flu which swept through the town taking the lives of the exhausted and weakened soldiers, as well as many local people.
Another 18 were killed in accidents or died of wounds inflicted on them during the war.
Canberra Member of the Last Post Association Belgium Richard Woods said it took so long to get the men home because there weren't enough ships. The Australians had been embraced by locals while they were there.
"They were typical Australian men. They were young, they wanted to have fun, they became men over there," Mr Woods said.
Mr Woods said he was approached by Ms Dujardian who asked for 102 wooden crosses to add to the bare graves in Charleroi. Efforts are now being made to recognise the men.
On November 11 at the Armistice ceremony in Charleroi, the soldiers will receive full military honours, the Australian national anthem will be played for the first time and the graves will get their overdue crosses.
The crosses were signed by the Belgium ambassador Marc Mullie and a group of NSW students from Cooma, Crookwell, Murrumburrah-Harden and Goulburn-Mulwaree, at a ceremony at the Ambassador's residence in Canberra on Friday.
Australian War Memorial assistant director Major General Brian Dawson was Australia's first military representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in Brussels for three years. He said the connection between Belgium and Australia forged during the war was strong.
The town of Ieper had played the The Last Post at 8pm every night since the end of the war at a commemorative gateway for 6191 missing Australians. This stopped during World War Two when the Germans invaded, but as the Germans were being driven out of the city, it played again and has every night since.
"The Australian connection is still there," he said, "we will remember the sacrifice and pass it on to the next generation," he said.
Mr Mullie said the relationship between the countries was important.
"Politically, the war helped Australian and Belgium become allies. It's easy to build a relationship on the back of that history," he said.
Army contributing historian Nick Floyd supplied 20 photos of servicemen and battlefields for the recognition ceremony and said pathos and symbolism was the easiest way to explain the war to younger generations.
"With the passage of time, the sentiment can be lost, people feel more detached," Mr Floyd said.
