Drafting instrument set : Lance Corporal S R Mills, 1 Division Signals Company, AIF

Box set of drafting instruments. There are eight separate stainless steel instruments contained within a rectangular, lidded case with a leatherette covering and a velveteen interior. The interior conatins shaped spaces for each instrument. Two of the instruments are fitted with ivory (or a plastic substitute, such as ivorine) handles, and there is a capped storage tube for pencil leads, also from the same material. The set comprises compasses, dividers, rules and other shanked instruments which can be fitted to the compass body.

Set of boxed, carpenter's drawing instruments associated with the post-First World War Government rehabilitation training of Lance Corporal Stanley Roland Mills, 1st Division Signal Company, AIF.

Mills was born in Camberwell, Victoria and had served in the Australian Citizen’s Forces when he enlisted on 4 January 1915. He embarked from Australia on 25 February 1915 and served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. Appointed lance corporal on 27 September 1918, Mills returned to Australia per ‘Kashmir’ on 9 March 1919 and was discharged on 29 June 1919.

In 1918, the Australian Government created the Repatriation Department, which established a comprehensive and centralised repatriation scheme. The department established employment bureaus and vocational and rehabilitation training for returned servicemen and women, such as carpentry training.

Mills stated in his oral history interview (S00069) that upon his return to civilian life, he didn’t fancy the idea of having a job indoors, so he seized upon the opportunity to undertake training to become a carpenter. He went to Swinburne Technical College and on to Worth’s Park Trade School. He obtained a certificate as a qualified tradesman and continued to work as a carpenter until the Depression.