Banners bearing the names and photographs of local servicemen who died fighting for their country have once again been erected along Summer Street as the city commemorates Anzac Day.

This is the third year the memorial banners have been flown in the CBD, part of the 'Local Fallen' project, a partnership between Orange City Council and the Orange RSL sub-branch.

The Orange RSL sub-branch has been working to compile photographs and information on all the 200 Orange servicemen and women killed during wartime, although it is expected to take several years to acknowledge them all.

Forty new banners were erected several weeks ago, each bearing a serviceman’s name, photograph, birthplace, unit and the date and place of their death.

One of those honoured this year is Private Lionel Brizzolara. Lionel was born in Lucknow in 1895, the son of an Italian migrant who, it is said, fought with the great General Garibaldi in the 1866-67 campaign against the Austrian Empire.

Lionel was a competent young student and a keen footballer, studying first at Lucknow and then later at Orange public schools.

In the summer of 1910, tragedy struck the Brizzolara family when Lionel’s older brother Louis died after suffering from oedema, a build-up of fluid in the body that led to heart failure. Louis was just 19 at the time, and his loss was widely mourned in Lucknow and Orange.

The following year, at 15, Lionel joined the railways as a probationary junior porter, but the job mustn’t have suited him, as he resigned just a few months later.

It’s possible that Lionel simply had a better offer, as two years later he was employed as a wheelwright at Gardiner and Sons coach factory in Peisley Street.

When news came home to Australia of the landings at Gallipoli and the raging battles in the days following, Lionel enlisted. He gives his age as 19 years, 11 months, not much older than his brother was when he had died five years before

Private Lionel Brizzolara embarked on the 'Orsova' in July 1915, bound for Egypt. He joined the ANZAC forces at Gallipoli on November 6, 1915, six weeks before the evacuation.

Returning to Egypt, Lionel sailed for France, disembarking at the Mediterranean port of Marseilles. He arrived on the Western Front at the beginning of April 1916.

A few months later, Lionel was part of the first wave of troops to fight in the Battle of Pozieres. In the first hour of that battle, he sustained severe shell wounds to his right leg. Lionel was transported to the 1st Australian Field Ambulance, where his leg was amputated. He survived for a further two days, but died from his wounds on July 25, 1916. On April 25, 1917, the second ever Anzac Day service in Orange was held at Orange Public School.

Mayoress McNeilly placed a laurel wreath on the Union Jack for each fallen soldier who had attended the school, including Lionel Brizzolara.

Lionel had celebrated his 21st birthday just one month before he died. He is buried in Warloy-Baillon Communal Cemetery in the Picardie region of France.