Pyke Brothers Riverina Pride flour bag signed by 'Lads and Regiments in France' : Private S H Nest, 20 Battalion AIF

Pyke Brothers brand calico flour bag printed with a circular design in red and blue ink with lettering, scrolls and ears of wheat. The logo reads 'PYKE BROS DEVON ROLLER FLOUR MILLS COOLAMON. N.S.W. AUSTRALIA/ RIVERINA PRIDE ROLLER FLOUR/ 1ST PRIZE JUNEE 1900/ 2ND PRIZE COWRA 1900/ FIRST PRIZE SYDNEY, 1904-5, & 6.'. Handwritten at the top of one side is NAMES. OF DIFFERENT LADS and Regiments in France' which is followed, on both sides of the bag by signatures of Allied servicemen, together with their service numbers, and unit names. The names are: 3921 S H Nest, 20 Battalion AIF (the owner of the bag); 521 George Brownlow, 5 Pioneer Battalion AIF; 6133 R G Ellis; 60 Battalion AIF; 3597 J Dougan, Seaforth Highlanders; 5311 B Brim, 59 Machine Gun Company; 36254 W Rawings, 2nd Worcester Regiment; 40706 A Kennard, Royal field Artillery; 9/1197 W S McEwan, New Zealand Field Artillery; 11752 A Tunstall, 8th Canadian Battalion; 5991 G Croft, 7 Battalion AIF [killed in action 9 August 1918]; 108646 J Davenport, 295 Battery Royal field Artillery; 293635 H Stamworth, 1/5 Lancashire Fusiliers; 53336 C J Grassby, 19th Durham Light Infantry; 10383 Driver M J Aitken, Australian field Artillery; 505134 W H Grassing 2nd King's Royal Rifles; 176394 E Hargraves, 2/1 Yorkshire Dragoons; 37592 W Thorpe, 8 King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry; 686 Private D O'Donnell, 41 Battalion AIF; 5942 Pte J W Morland, 8th Seaforth Highlanders; 8964 A E Smith, Royal Field Artillery ; 330266 Gnr Dean Devon, Royal Garrison Artillery; 4352 Bugler W Munro, 18th Highland Light Infantry; 31012 Sig H N Fuller, 9th Suffolks; 2907 Sgt F B Wren, 93rd Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery; 205089 Pte J S Wannell, 6th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment; 204605 Pte A Capelin, 1st East Surrey Regiment; 6448 Pte W Halford, 23 Battalion AIF; and 35582 Gnr A A Coxhead, 1st Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. At the end of the list, written by Sapper Nest is 'I might state that this flour bag has been on the firing line and all the names on it are lads who have done their bit for their King and Country and it is the first time that an Australian flour bag has found its way into the firing line. Shows its a great ado for the good old flour that I would like to have some of now. By the time it gets back it will have travelled 34000 miles'.

Associated with 3921 Sapper Sidney Herbert Nest who worked for Pyke Brothers Flour Mill at Coolamon, NSW, before his enlistment in enlistment in the AIF on 20 September 1915, at the age of thirty. Nest was assigned initially to 18 Battalion, AIF as a private and sailed for overseas service with this battalion on 20 January 1916 aboard HMAT A54 Runic. In France he was soon transferred to 20 Battalion, where he remained until 2 March 1918, when he transferred, as a sapper, to 16, and then 2, Australian Light Railway Operating Company. In 1917, while recovering from rheumatic fever in England, Nest met and married Rosina Moore, a widow with a young daughter. The new family returned to Coolamon in early 1920, when Nest was discharged from the army. Nest's flour bag, from the mill where he was employed, also returned to Australia. It had originally been sent to him as the wrapping for a comforts parcel containing cigarettes that was put together by the Coolamon Branch of the War Chest Fund. The president of the Fund was Mrs R K Pyke, wife of the owner of Pyke Bros Flour Mill. Nest asked each soldier to whom he offered cigarettes from the parcel, to sign the bag, and when both sides had been covered he posted it back to Mrs Pyke as a souvenir.