A photograph of Sergeant Ernest James Brough showing correct handball technique to Drouin State School students in 1944.
In the lead-up to Remembrance Day, it is timely to remember a distinguished local soldier who served in World War II.
Brough, aged 21-years-old at the time of this photograph, was a former pupil of the school. It was taken the day after an official announcement that he had been awarded a Military Medal for distinguished service with Tito Jugoslav forces after his escape from a German prison camp.
Sgt Brough escaped from German prison camp Stalag 18 in southern Austria on Good Friday in 1944, along with an Australian and a New Zealander.
The trio met up with a group of Yugoslavian partisans and travelled with them for several weeks through Slovenia and Croatia to Bosnia.
On June 12, they were picked up by a plane and taken to Italy.
One of the partisans gave Sgt Brough his cap. He held onto that cap until donating it to the Australian War Memorial in June 2018.
At 182cm and 88kg, Brough played in Drouin's football team before the war. He also played cricket.
The football and cricket teams both suffered the same fate during the war, as all members volunteered for active service and left town. Even the wicketkeeper - the Presbyterian pastor - went away to serve as chaplain.
Photograph and information courtesy of Drouin History Group via photographer Jim Fitzpatrick's 1944 series "A Small Town at War".
The accompanying caption says Brough was showing "present scholars the correct way to punch a football".
Ernest Brough's story can be found on the Australian War Memorial website and Anzac Portal website.