Souvenir of Egypt cushion cover : Private C J Irwin, 1 Anzac Cyclist Battalion, AIF

Printed cotton souvenir cushion cover with a cream cotton fringe, most of which is missing. The souvenir is printed in colour on a cream ground and shows in the centre the pyramids against a yellow sky, with the Nile, date palms, two men and a man on a camel in the foreground. Around this scene in a laurel wreath interspersed with six flags of the allied nations - Great Britain, Egypt, Italy, France, Belgium and Russia, together with brown sepia images of their respective heads of state. 'God save the King' is written above the Union flag and there is an Arabic inscription above the Egyptian flag. There is a representation of the Australian flag at the bottom of the wreath with the following words beneath it 'Heaven's light our guide/ Rule Britannia/ Evil be to him who evil thinks/ God Save the King'. 'Souvenir of Egypt' is written in a scroll on the lower right side of the cover.

This souvenir was bought by 383 Private Colin James Irwin of 1 Anzac Cyclist Battalion, AIF as he passed through Egypt on his way to service in France and Belgium in May or June 1916. Irwin, a 24 year old bush labourer, was born at Graman, New South Wales, and enlisted at Ashford on 11 September 1915. After basic training near Sydney Irwin left Australia aboard the troopship HMAT A46 Clan McGillivray on 3 May 1915. After he arrived in France Irwin transferred to 53 Battalion, AIF in September 1916 and was assigned the service number 383A. At the end of December, suffering severe trench feet, he was evacuated to England. After his release from hospital in March 1917 he was sent for further training before rejoining his battalion in July. Irwin was wounded in action at Polygon Wood near Ypres, Belgium, on 26 September 1917. As a result his right leg was amputated below the knee. He was again evacuated to England and after lengthy convalescence returned to Australia on 18 March 1919. On his return to Sydney he met and fell in love with a volunteer Red Cross nurse, Doris Grey. They married at Petersham in 1920. Irwin was employed for the rest of his working life, until the 1950s, at the artificial limb factory at Strawberry Hills in Sydney, which specialised in the development of improved prosthetics for returned soldiers from both world wars.