A group of parishioners have spent many days researching and compiling the book based on the war memorial in the church.

It was one of the first memorials to be created at the end of World War I, dedicated in December 1918.

The book was supported through the Anzac Centenary Public Fund.

“We also had an interest in the project as a community activity … we are very interested in the data set that we could use in schools particularly with the new curriculum associated with maths and history,” parishioner and UTAS professor Ian Hay said.

“We were trying to put some new resources and thinking into how we conceptualise ANZAC and the whole war memorial, we wanted to put in some work on ethics … we also wanted to put in some contemporary poems from New Zealand and juxtapose those with poems the ANZACs themselves wrote.”

The ‘Digger’s Poems’ were found in an old trunk which belonged to Reverend Ken Box’s grandfather.

Parionsher Rosemary Callinghan said the research had given a “good picture” of the individuals who went to war.

“You really get a sense of the people, the ones who were injured, who spent time in hospital and some really sad cases of shell shock or suicide,” she said.