War memorial buys two WWII gravestones

The Australian War Memorial has bought the gravestones of two soldiers who were killed in the Cowra breakout during World War II.

The owner of the Cowra War and Rail Museum put the original gravestones of Private Benjamin Hardy and Private Ralph Jones up for auction on April 1, prompting the AWM to bid.

"We paid $325 for the two, which is $325 more than anybody should have paid because common decency would suggest a man's headstone, particularly a George Cross recipient's, should not be sold," AWM director Brendan Nelson said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The headstones were purchased by the Memorial to keep them from the private market and ensure they would be treated with the dignity they deserve."

He said it was "disappointing" someone would seek to profit on the deaths of two Australian servicemen.

Privates Hardy and Jones were killed by escapees while manning a machine-gun post at the Prisoner of War compound, near Cowra in NSW's central west, in 1944.

More than 1000 Japanese PoWs were housed in the camp when they violently stormed the wire fences in the early hours of August 5 with several hundred prisoners escaping.

The two Australian soldiers were posthumously awarded the George Cross, second only to the Victoria Cross, in the 1950s.

The soldiers' headstones were removed from Cowra Cemetery in the 1970s to be replaced with new markers featuring George Cross insignia to cite their "outstanding gallantry and devotion to duty".

"Instead of being destroyed, the original headstones were deposited at the local tip, where they were found by the owner of the Cowra War and Rail Museum," an AWM statement said.

Cowra Mayor Bill West said the council was pleased the original markers were in the museum's care.

The headstones are scheduled for conservation work with a decision yet to be made on their public display.