Lynn Hocking said her father, Eric Scott, went missing while on a patrol at El Alamein in August 1942.
He never returned, Mrs Hocking said.
El Alamein, in the desert of northern Egypt, was the site of several significant battles in the latter half of 1942.
Allied troops, including the 2nd New Zealand Division, stopped and turned back an Axis thrust — spearheaded by German tanks — which aimed to capture Cairo and the Suez Canal.
Mrs Hocking was just 6 months old when she lost her father and and only knew him through photos.
Anzac Day was an emotional occasion.
"It’s always poignant," she said.
While she lived away from Mosgiel for about 40 years, she had attended the Mosgiel Anzac Day service every year since she returned 18 years ago.
Her father’s name is engraved on the war memorial at Anzac Park, where poppies and wreaths are laid during the ceremony.
Mr Scott had joined the regular forces in about 1935, when he was 18.
He had been working on his father-in-law’s sheep station, who had likely given him some encouragement to join, thinking it would be good for the younger man for a year or two.
"Back in the 1930s boys didn’t have many choices, did they?" Mrs Scott said.
Her son Peter Hocking said they usually attended the memorial service as a family.
While Mr Scott’s death happened a long time ago it had echoed through the ages.
His death had a profound impact on his mother, both in terms of how she grew up and how she had raised her own children.
Anzac Day also made him think of his grandmother, who lived in Forfar St, Mosgiel, and what she had gone through, raising five children on her own on a war pension.
"The war didn’t just end in 1945," Mr Hocking said.
