The Fallen is a unique commemorative book that honours 80 men from the Riversdale-Waikaia district in Southland, New Zealand, who lost their lives during the wars of the Twentieth Century.

The book, funded by Veterans' Affairs New Zealand, details each serviceman's early life, his family, education, employment, military service, and death.

Adhering to the Imperial War Graves Commission's principles of equality and uniformity, each man is allocated a page which brings to the surface his life by using a photographic portrait, humorous or interesting anecdotes, and his role in the particular actions where he served.

This book should act as an example of what communities all over New Zealand and Australia, and indeed throughout the British Commonwealth, can achieve given a will to do some basic research and commit this to paper.

After time, engraved names on existing war memorials become what Siegfried Sassoon once called "intolerably nameless names."

Because of this commemorative book, our community can now say with some degree of confidence when we utter Rudyard Kipling's Recessional "Lest we forget" each Anzac Day that we have not forgotten.

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Chapters from The Fallen include:

• Where they died
• Understanding the battlefield landscape
• Historic poetry, photographic gallery and further reading

All proceeds from the sale of this book go towards Returned and Services' Association welfare.