Wedding dress : Mrs Golda Jean Neall (nee Ellis)

Ivory cotton lace wedding dress with a small floral pattern. The dress has a close fitting bodice with a horizontally gathered front panel. The elbow length sleeves are puffed at the shoulder and pleated at the elbow to give a close fit around the arm. Both the sleeves and the square neckline are edged with folded and pleated silk tulle. The back of the bodice fastens with 16 satin covered buttons which are secured with rouleaus made from the same satin. A broad waistband connects the bodice to the circular skirt, which is gathered into the band. There is an opening in the left side of the dress which closes with metal hooks and buttonhole stitch 'eyes'. The circular skirt has additional lace panels at the bottom of the centre front and centre back to complete the line of the circle. Both the sleeves and waistband are lined with silk tulle. The same tulle forms an attached straight, unshaped, underskirt which is sewn to the waistband without any gathering.

Worn by Miss Golda Jean Ellis on the day of her marriage to Lieutenant Oliver Zachariah Neall, of 2/8 Battalion, at Murray Bridge, South Australia on 23 October 1943. Although Golda had wanted to support the Australian war effort by joining one of the womens' services a legacy of childhood polio, which required her to wear a leg caliper, prevented her from doing so. Instead, she joined the Murray Bridge chapter of the Adelaide Cheer-Up Society, while continuing to live at home with her parents. Members of the Murray Bridge chapter met troop trains on their way between Victoria and South Australia and provided the men with fruit, chocolate and other small comforts. Golda met Oliver 'Ozzie' Neall, then a sergeant, after he returned from service in North Africa and Greece, where he had been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for gallantry at Tobruk in January 1941. While on leave he called on her parents, who were friends of his parents, and was asked to call Golda to join them at afternoon tea. She recalled that he found her scrubbing the bathroom floor and that 'it was love at first sight'. The couple became engaged but Neall was posted to the Northern Territory. Granted leave unexpectedly he gave Golda just ten days in which to prepare for their wedding. The wedding dress was purchased in Adelaide, while friends and neighbours at Murray Bridge provided flowers from their gardens and helped with the catering.

• Petticoat for wedding dress : Mrs G J Neall
• Horseshoe for wedding dress : Mrs Golda Jean Neall (nee Ellis)