Peaked forage cap : Captain F N Parbury, Royal Field Artillery

Dark blue superfine forage cap with black patent leather peak. Peak is rounded in front and decorated with thick, wide gold bullion wire braid. Sides of cap trimmed with wide gold artillery pattern lace with pale blue central stirpe. Centre of crown decorated with loops of gold Russia braid and possibly, at one time, a central netted button, no longer present. Inside, peak is lined with green leather, crown and sides with black silk and cotton sateen, machine quilted with red thread at the crown. Brown leather headband stitched to lower inside edge of cap with ribboned drawstring inserted at back section only. Sides of cap stiffened with two layers of card.

Peaked forage cap belonging to Captain Frederick Nigel Parbury. He was born in Satur, Scone, New South Wales on 13 May 1879 and joined the New South Wales Regiment of the Royal Australian Artillery in October 1899 as a 2nd lieutenant. In May 1900 he took up the offer of a commission in the Royal Field Artillery and joined 114th Battery at Colchester, UK, in January 1901. In September 1901 he served with the 20th Battery in South Africa, taking part in operations in Cape Colony and the Transvaal until December of that year, when he was promoted to lieutenant. From December until 31 May 1902, he took part in operations in the Orange River Colony. For his service in the Boer War he received the Queen's South Africa medal with five clasps. In 1905 Parbury served in India, first at Dinapore, then Lucknow in 1908 and finally Bareilly in 1913. He had been promoted to captain in January 1911. In September 1914 he left India for France to serve in the First World War on the Western Front. He was killed in action at La Bassee on 9 May 1915 when a shell exploded in his observation post. He had been promoted to major in January of that year. Parbury had married Julia Harriott in Sydney in 1912 and had one son, born in 1913.