For local businesswoman Heather formerly from the Barking Owl in Main Street, Lithgow, and husband Eric Mahony, this was a portrait of a young serviceman from World War I, which turned up as part of a larger purchase.

Eric and Heather's view is that items like these, where possible, should be returned to the families and communities where they came from.

After researching the find, they found the young man, John Dargaville, who originated from the New South Wales country town of Nabiac, inland from Foster.

They are now working with the subbranch of the RSL in Nabiac to find a home for the young man's portrait.

The 28-year-old left Nabiac and found himself on the Western Front in France, where he was wounded twice. In the closing months of the war, he was gassed only to return to his unit and back onto the battlefield.

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Despite all the close calls, the young man survived the war and returned to Australia to live until he was 86.

His family, whose father had died not long before the commencement of the war, saw three of their four sons enlist, with a second serving at Gallipoli and France and the third enlisting with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF).

"When we can find links, we are happy to return the item to the community from where they had come from because of their importance to the local family, social history and fabric of these country towns," Eric Mahony said.

"I would be thrilled if something like this was returned to my family as little material records exist for my Irish grandfather Peter Mahony, who enlisted into the British Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) unit and served in the Middle East during World War I."

Eric and Heather will travel to Nabiac to take the item home after the ANZAC weekend.

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