More than a century after they were killed in World War I, the remains of two missing Australian Army soldiers have been identified.

Second Lieutenant Duncan McKenzie and Private Roy Martin will both have their names engraved on their headstones overseas, after a century of being presumed missing in action.

Australia’s Chief of Army Lieutenant General Simon Stuart said the identifications showed Australia’s enduring commitment to honouring its war dead.

“The formal identification of Second Lieutenant McKenzie and Private Martin, more than a century after their deaths, reflects our ongoing responsibility to those who served and sacrificed for our nation,” Lieutenant General Stuart said.

“Time does not diminish our obligation to remember their service and to honour them with the dignity of a named grave.”

Second Lieutenant McKenzie, from Kerang in Victoria, was killed in action on October 12, 1917, during the Third Battle of Ypres.

He and his brothers departed for war from his family’s Kerang property in 1916. His descendants still reside there today.

Serving with the 38th Battalion, Second Lieutenant McKenzie was part of an attack to suppress German positions.

With many accounts of him being captured or killed during this attack, his body was not formally identified when the battlefield was cleared in 1920.

He was buried at Passchendaele New British Cemetery as an Unknown Australian Soldier.

Recent investigations and the discovery of new evidence made it possible to eliminate all other candidates except Second Lieutenant McKenzie, and his remains were confirmed.

His headstone in Belgium will be replaced with one that bears his name and regimental details.

'Their families have lived generations without knowing where their loved ones lay.'

Private Roy Martin, from Cobar in NSW, was among the more than 1800 Australians killed during the Battle of Fromelles in July 1916. 

His body was recovered by German forces and was among the 250 Commonwealth soldiers exhumed from an unmarked mass grave at Pheasant Wood in 2009.

Private Martin was then reburied as an Unknown Australian Soldier at the Fromelles Military Cemetery.

His identity has now been confirmed through a detailed process involving DNA analysis and historical research, in collaboration with the Fromelles Association of Australia.

Defence has now formally identified 181 of the 250 soldiers recovered at the mass grave.

Private Martin will receive a new headstone at Fromelles on the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Fromelles in July.

“By formally identifying Second Lieutenant McKenzie and Private Martin, their families receive long-awaited reassurance and clarity,” Lieutenant General Stuart said.

“Their families have lived generations without knowing where their loved ones lay.”

The identifications were conducted in partnership with the soldiers’ families, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Commemorations team, historical research organisation Fallen Diggers Incorporated and the Fromelles Association of Australia.