The Warrnambool RSL historian has compiled a list of the servicemen killed in action during the Gallipoli campaign and many of the fatalities occurred in August 1915.

The noteworthy anniversary will be commemorated next month with a series of events and some startling statistics from Mr McGinness which highlight how south-west Victoria was hit by the tragedy of war.

Nineteen men who enlisted in the Warrnambool region were killed at Gallipoli in a single day- August 7, 1915. A further 10 men were slaughtered in the days that followed.

“The April landing at Gallipoli is rightly remembered but August 1915 was a particularly dark period in the military history of Australia,” Mr McGinness said.

“One particular battlefield was beyond comprehension. The diggers were fighting in an area that barely covered an acre. The soldiers originally tried to avoid stepping on the bodies on the ground. Things became so cramped that the diggers then had to avoid standing on the faces of the dead.

“It’s when you discover details like that, the brutality of war and that particular battle really hits home.”

Surnames such as Boswell, Brewer, Cramond, Hindhaugh, Parsons, Walsh, Wilson and Whitehead number those among the dead from the Warrnambool region.

One of Mr McGinness’s ancestors, Paul ‘Ginty’ McGinness, returned from Gallipoli and went on to help establish aviation company Qantas.

Commemorations are scheduled to take place from August 6 with a Lone Pine event at the Warrnambool Botanic Gardens from 5pm. 

A series of events will take place on August 8 with a Living History Group service at the Botanic Gardens at 10am followed by a tree planting and guided tour at the city cemetery at 11am.

From midday to 2pm, a question-and-answer session will be held at Flagstaff Hill’s garrison shed with a volunteer crew firing the maritime village’s 80-pound gun at 1pm.

Also planned for August 8 will be an Anzac concert at The Sisters Memorial Hall from 3.30pm.