Twenty one Federal Safety Match boxes with patriotic slogans : Miss M Dircks, Voluntary Aid Detachment

Twenty one Federal safety match boxes, still retaining their contents. Each box outer is made from thin wood ply with a paper label, and only one side is fitted with a red phosphorous striker panel. The inner drawer is made from folded card wrapped in blue paper. The front of each box features the 'Federal Safety Matches' label in red and white with a kangaroo within a map of Australia and the words 'AVERAGE CONTENTS 60'. The reverse of each box features a design of a triangular trademark in black and white containing the company's address, over a design of wood grain with the word 'IMPREGNATED' running vertically at each end. Printed in red above and below the wood grain design is a patriotic slogan, which is different for each box. The slogans are: '£10 SAVINGS BONDS / YOUR WAY TO HELP' (2 copies); 'PLAY YOUR PART - / BUY WAR CERTIFICATES'; 'HELP NATIONAL EFFORT / BUY WAR CERTIFICATES' (2 copies); 'LEND OR LOSE ALL / BUY WAR CERTIFICATES'; 'HELP SPEED VICTORY / BUY WAR CERTIFICATES'; 'BE IN THE FIGHT / BUY WAR CERTIFICATES'; 'IT'S NOW OR NEVER / BUY WAR CERTIFICATES'; 'CARELESS TALK / COSTS SOLDIERS' LIVES' (2 copies - one with only 20 matches); 'THE ENEMY LISTENS - / GUARD YOUR TONGUE'; 'SAVE AND LEND / BUY £10 NATIONAL BONDS'; 'ENLIST IN MILITIA - / SUPPORT THE A.I.F.'; 'BEFORE SPENDING THINK / BUY WAR CERTIFICATES'; 'LAY-BY FOR VICTORY / BUY BONDS ON TERMS'; 'DON'T SPREAD RUMOUR / SILENCE SAVES LIVES'; 'DON'T GOSSIP ABOUT / SHIPPING MOVEMENTS'; 'NOW, AND EVERY WEEK / BUY WAR CERTIFICATES'; 'IT'S YOUR WAR TOO - / BUY WAR CERTIFICATES'; 'SAVING IS SERVING / BUY NATIONAL BONDS'. Also includes the remains of an outer grey paper wrapping with the 'Federal' label intact.

Related to the Second World War service of Margaret 'Peg' Dircks of Strathfield, NSW. Dircks studied science at Sydney University and graduated in 1937 and during the war worked for the soap makers Lever Brothers in their chemical laboratory at Alexandria, Sydney. She had met David Kenneth Caird Williamson at university and they married on 5 July 1944; he worked at Shell Petroleum in a reserved occupation. Margaret Dircks joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) in early 1942 and was one of the first two women to volunteer as ambulance drivers in New South Wales. Her family relates that in order to practice driving, she borrowed a David Jones delivery truck and drove it around Sydney until she felt confident in her abilities. Margaret Dircks purchased these matches when the Government's austerity, rationing and secrecy campaigns were at their height; when slogans and advertisements exhorting the public to greater efforts appeared everywhere. Rationing frequently induced hoarding which resulted in these matches remaining stored and unused until 2005.