In the quiet upstairs room of a NSW south coast museum behind a screen of glass sits a rusty object barely wider than a human palm.

The pocket knife is easily missed at Moruya and District Historical Society (MDHS), nestled as it is among brightly-ribboned shining medals and black and white photos of men at war.

There is nothing to draw one's attention to the ferruginous artefact.

Nothing, that is, except its story.

Raymond Charles Bishop volunteered to throw hand bombs at a German machinegun nest preventing his Allied forces from retreating on July 20, 1916 at Fromelles in France.

The man from Nerrigundah was wounded, yet continued to crawl forward and launch the explosives towards the enemy.

As he crept on his belly towards the safety of his trenches, the 21-year-old was fatally wounded. His body, precariously stranded in no man's land, was forsaken. He was thought lost forever.

It was just three weeks after Mr Bishop had arrived in France - 10 months after enlisting in the army.

Mr Bishop's name, and that of his older brother Harold - also killed in France, are both on the veterans honour board at Nerrigundah.

In 2007, mass graves were discovered near Fromelles, France containing the remains of hundreds of unknown Allied soldiers, including Australians.

In 2010, thanks to DNA samples provided by relatives, Ray Bishop's remains were identified amongst those in the mass grave.

His body was laid peacefully to rest at a new memorial cemetery just outside Fromelles.

The pocket knife was the only thing retrieved from his body, returned to his family after almost 100 years buried in a grave.

In 2015, the family donated two pictures and two artefacts to MDHS, including the rusty knife.

"The rust tells the story of the knife," former curator and collection team member at MDHS Brian Harris said.

He said the artifact was a significant object in the museums' collection, covering many themes including local history, war and Moruya in WWI.

"A museum has to be way beyond a series of dates; it is about the stories attached to those people," he said. "This knife is emblematic of this man's life.

"Most boys at that stage would've owned a pocket knife, and that is what we have of his.

"He would've gone to war as a young man on this huge adventure and he never came back. He took his pocket knife on a big adventure now it's the only thing left.

"It is a very human reminder of war."