The Australian War Memorial remembers the July 19 to 20 battle in 1916  as "the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history". 

More than 100 people attended a commemoration service in Ballarat to mark the centenary of the bloodiest conflict in Australian history at the Arch of Victory on Wednesday.

Arch of Victory and Avenue of Honour committee president Bruce Price told the crowd heartbroken families of fallen soldiers endured long periods of fear and grief.  Many did not know what happened to their loved ones for years. Some died before they were able to find out.

“It was worst 24 hours in the history of Ballarat,” Mr Price said. “It brings home to the locals how much the community at the time were involved in the conflict and how much it would have affected Ballarat.”

The average age of the men killed was 23 but many were just teenagers when they lost their lives on the battlefield. 

Descendants of soldiers who fought in the battle continued to come forward.

Among them is Maureen Holding whose great uncle Ballarat soldier Private Frederick Rawlings was killed.

It took 94 years for Private Rawlings, who was one of 250 men buried in a mass grave at Pheasant Wood, to be identified. 

Until seeing an article in The Courier almost 30 years ago, Mrs Holdings did not know Private Rawlings or his younger brother, Corporal Sydney Rawlings, had even been in the war.

“My father never told us he had any uncles in the war,” she said. 

In 1988, The Courier published a photo of Cpl Sydney Rawlings and excerpts from a letter from an army chaplain that informed Ballarat family members of his death in 1918.

‘‘About two years later, my husband, Malcolm, found in a tin of rusty nails and shoe buckles belonging to my late dad, a set of war medals,’’ Mrs Holding said.

They were inscribed with Sydney’s Rawlings’ name. Checks of family records confirmed the connection. Private Rawlings was identified in 2010.

An emotional Ms Holding laid a wreath during the service. In her hand, she held a precious bible which Private Rawlings carried with him when he was killed on the battlefield.

The bible was found by a German solider after Private Rawlings was killed. The soldier sent it back to Ballarat in 1935. It was found years later at the Humffray Street North Methodist Church before it was returned to the family.

“It’s my most precious possession,” Ms Holding said. “It means so much that it is finally back with us.”