October 25, 2013: A man's body has been discovered following a fierce house fire in Sydney's southeast.
Clay Musgrave paid a final visit to the Sydney RSL club he'd been running for six years on Tuesday.
The popular and community minded Matraville RSL sub branch president was on Friday morning killed in a fire at his single-storey Botany home.
He had been busy as RSL secretary since 2007 and was the club's welfare officer, visiting hospitals and nursing homes and researching service records for the funerals of defence force members.
"He was very, very popular at the club," his boss, sub branch president James Finn, told AAP on Friday.
Mr Finn said Mr Musgrave was a "terrific bloke" who also ran the club.
"He was in control of the office here, I'm just a figurehead," he said.
"He was the engine room, he did all the graft."
Club members were "totally shocked" by the news, many finding out as they arrived on Friday morning, Mr Finn said.
In the office a plaque recognising Mr Musgrave's outstanding service to the community hangs.
The 50-year-old, who served in the Navy for seven years before being medically discharged, was nominated for the award by former local federal MP Peter Garrett.
One of Mr Musgrave's two dogs was killed in the fire with him and RSL members will speak to his four brothers about taking in his surviving dog and pet parrott.
A security guard noticed smoke and flames coming from Mr Musgrave's home while patrolling the area.
He managed to rouse neighbours and together they tried to fight the flames with a garden hose but were beaten back by smoke and heat.
The cause of the fire hasn't been determined.
A report is being prepared for the coroner.
"I'm going to miss him very much, he was my right-hand man," Mr Finn said.
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