It will be officially unveiled on Saturday morning after a guided tour of significant graves during Anzac Day.

The new monument recognises those who returned home and are buried in the cemetery as well as other former locals who were buried overseas with some names noted on family graves.

Tour leader and Anzac centenary committee member Doug Heazlewood said the   stone was secured using a grant from the state government.

“There are many graves in the Warrnambool cemetery which relate to World War One,” he said.

“About 200 contain the remains of men and women who served, returned and are buried here.

“Some of those take the form of  official memorials and some are family graves, but details of service are not always recorded.

“There are also memorials to soldiers not buried here because they died overseas.

“In those cases the family has seen fit to record the names of dead soldiers on a family headstone, sometimes more than one from the same family.

“We decided to place a large stone plaque at the cemetery entrance drawing attention to the nature of the graves and to provide memorial books at strategic locations allowing people to  identify the veteran’s name and location of the grave.

“On Anzac Day the stone will be officially unveiled by a descendant of one of the decorated Gallipoli veterans whose grave will be visited.”

Accompanying Mr Heazlewood on the tour from 8am will be Warrnambool Family History Group member Ray Welsford who did extensive research on the issue.

The memorial booklets  will be available at the cemetery office, civic centre, public library, RSL sub-branch and Heritage Works.