Lucky black cat bookmark : Sergeant FG Dodd, 1 Machine Gun Battalion, AIF

Sitting black cat silhouette cut from 1mm thick black leather. Accompanying the cat is a small card on which is written agood luck message (REL31689.002).

Related to the service of 3051 Sergeant Frederick Graham Dodd, (known as Graham) a draftsman of Deepdene, Victoria, born 16 January 1898, who enlisted on 6 January 1917, ten days prior to his eighteenth birthday and was assigned to 3 Company, 1 Machine Gun Battalion. He embarked for overseas service aboard HMAT Ballarat, departing from Melbourne on 19 February 1917.

After initial training in England, Dodd spent four months at the Australian Machine Gun Training Depot at Bolton Park, from July to 17 October 1917 before contracting measles and spending 3 weeks in hospital. He then proceeded to France to join his Battalion.

Dodd remained with 1 Machine Gun Battalion until the end of the war and returned to Australia before being discharged on 23 July 1919. This leather lucky cat bookmark was given to Dodd upon his embarkation and is typical of the style of good luck charms and objects given to men leaving for overseas service.

• Good luck poem : Sergeant FG Dodd, 1 Machine Gun Battalion, AIF