Embroidered 'Souvenir of Egypt' cloth : Private C Rhodes, 4 Battalion, AIF

Embroidered square souvenir cloth made of green and cream cotton sateen divided horizontally to represent the colour patch of 4 Battalion, AIF. The cloth has a white lace border and a pink cotton fringe. The embroidery is machine chain-stitched in blue and magenta cottons and reads: 'SOUVENIR OF EGYPT WITH BEST WISHES TO MOTHER FROM CECIL 1916'. The cloth also features embroidered multi-coloured representations of sprays of flowers on each side of the Australian Coat of Arms with the words, "ADVANCE AUSTRALIA' and the Australian Rising Sun badge with the words, 'AUSTRALIAN COMMONWEALTH MILITARY FORCES'.

Associated with the service of Private Cecil Rhodes MM, 4 Battalion, AIF. Born at Summer Hill, Sydney, NSW in 1882, Cecil Rhodes was a jeweller when he enlisted as a private in the AIF on 16 August 1915 with the service number 3893. Private Rhodes embarked in Sydney aboard HMAT Medic with reinforcements to 4 Battalion on 30 December 1915. He arrived at Alexandria in Egypt in January 1916 and would have purchased this souvenir for his mother during the two months he was in Egypt, before embarking for France on 23 March 1916. Private Rhodes served on the Western Front and was awarded the Military Medal (MM) for his actions on 23 August 1918 at Chuinges, France. Rhodes was the company runner. He carried messages from company headquearters, showing great devotion to duty and disregard for his own safety. He volunteered to carry messages on several occasions, despite the dangers of the heavy machine gun and rifle fire. Private Rhodes returned to Australian in June 1919.