While it would be another 10 years before his third daughter - Vida Hope, 90, who now lives in Newnham - was born, the legacy of her father's service stayed with the family during the Great Depression and World War II.

Vida will join her sister Ella Annis-Brown at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on Wednesday where memorial director Brendan Nelson will be their guide as they inspect original documents of their father's service.

It will be a special moment for the Sweeny family whose services to the armed forces have continued, carrying on the spirit of Ray Sweeny.

Ray enlisted in February, 1915, left Australia in June and was in Gallipoli by August, absorbed into the 1st Lighthorse, to fight in all the major battles at Gallipoli, including Lone Pine. He was then involved in the evacuation in December, moving back to the 12th Lighthorse.

His service continued however, and he became the youngest commissioned officer in the Lighthorse for the crucial charge of Beersheba in October, 1917, before undertaking peacekeeping in Palestine.

He returned to Australia in 1919, but like many, was reluctant to talk about his service with his family. It was only decades later that he opened up to his grandsons.

Vida was born in 1929, when the family ran a general store in Bribbaree, NSW.

She remembered the rat plagues and the poverty of the Great Depression, before war arrived almost literally on their doorstep.

Vida was riding the train from Canberra as an 11-year-old girl when she noticed men dressed in dyed-red army uniforms. They were Italian prisoners of war.

Ray's experience as an Army Officer meant he was called up for the Volunteer Defence Corp, training in their wheat region of NSW.

Vida remembers it well.

"I became involved because they had to do training every week for target practice. Guess who made the targets!" she said.

"My mother used to make buckets full of flour paste and I used to stick the paper on them, and every week they'd 'pip' 'pip' shoot all the holes in them, and then I'd have to cover in the holes."

When Japanese prisoners escaped the Cowra prison, they were put on high alert.

"I can remember dad being phoned up and how frightened we were that he was put on alert to get his fellas together if necessary," Vida said. They were never called into action.

Vida said the wars took a toll on her father, mostly due to a lack of support for returned soldiers at the time.

"These days they get counselling and psychological help. There was none of that after the First World War. They were encouraged to smoke, and possibly that's what killed him," she said.

Vida and Ella's visit to the Australian War Memorial will also allow them to view the Nursing Sister stained-glass window, which was modelled on Ella's close friend Peg.

Ella's husband Kelvin Annis-Brown served in the Air Force in World War II, and their sister Lorna served in the Navy in Canberra.