He will also visit a memorial near Tel Aviv in Israel that marks where his grandfather’s brother Brian Templer Barton fell in action.

Given its unusual history, the memorial will be a highlight of the trip for Peter, his brother Matthew and his father Brian who was named after this fallen uncle.

Over the years the memorial has been lost and found by various parties.

In 1972 a group of bush walkers stumbled across the memorial with its English inscription when wandering among the groves of Petah Thikvah and Kiriath Ono, and their discovery was reported in the Israeli-Hebrew paper Davar.

The inscription reads:

“Brian Templer Barton,

Nanima [the name of the Bartons’ property], Wellington, New South Wales,

Fell here in action 1917. 

He lies at Ramleh, 

Underneath are the everlasting arms.’’

Western Australian journalist Eythan Shany suggested in 1974 that someone had tried to dig under the memorial, not realising the metaphorical nature of the “everlasting arms”.

The Wellington Times reported in 2006 that a lack of interest and neglect had resulted in the memorial’s removal to outdoors storage on a pumping facility operated by Mekorot, the national water supply company, where it was seen by Yosef Yaacobi, a specialist in the region’s history.

In 2005 it disappeared, possibly under the rubble and a replica was placed in the central square of a new neighbourhood.

For a memorial to exist for a soldier in a foreign country seems unusual.

The heavy cement slab was erected by Dr Barton in the hope that his brother’s body would be left there to rest, but it was later reinterred at the Ramleh Military Cemetery near Jaffa.

It is understood that Brian Barton was killed by friendly fire as the men fought against the armies of Turkey and Germany to capture a site on a strategic position which the Australians called Bald Hill, one and a half miles south-south-west of Mulebbis, the Jewish colony of Petah-Thikvah.

In his letters Dr Barton wrote “our men crawled out and lay concealed between the lines and waited for the artillery to lift. Unfortunately one of the guns dropped shells short and these fell amongst our own men.”

“Brian’s body was lying exposed in the field for three weeks. It was recovered only after the Allies advanced northwards and a Scottish Infantry unit captured the area.”

Dr Barton was nearby when his brother was buried and rode all day to visit his grave.

“Immediately after Brian was buried prime rains started falling,” he wrote. “I found it difficult riding on my horse back to trace Brian’s grave.”

Brian Barton was 28 when he died in the 6th Light Horse Regiment.

He had been a surveyor, keen horseman and while he had opportunity to excel through the ranks, he chose to remain a trooper.

Shany wrote “coincidentally, or by the force of destiny, a son of Barton of Nanima -whose very beginnings grew from Jewish pioneers [before the property was bought by the Bartons] - found his lasting peace in the ground of Palestine.”

While Dr Barton rarely spoke about the war, he wrote many letters to his mother during the fighting and it is through this extensive record that Peter Barton was able to learn more about the brothers.

While he knew his grandfather as “very matter of fact and always thinking about other people,” it is a quality he can also see early on in the letters.

Dr Barton had joined the army as Lieutenant, achieving the rank of Captain in Gallipoli and Major in Sinai.

“Nat spent his 21st in Gallipoli and came back shot through the nose at Gallipoli,” Mr Barton said.

“He didn’t think he would come back alive. 

“He had bullets in his knees in Palestine and when he came back he got married and then enlisted in World War II. 

“He gave up eight years of his life to fight and (by reading these letters) you can sort of see him when he was a young man.

“Now we will actually be able to see trenches where they fought and be able to sit in the same places they did.”