Hand made razor : Private P T M Reed, 2/3 Machine Gun Battalion

Hand made folding cut throat razor. Steel blade, made from a ground down vehicle spring, folds on a steel pivot, into an aluminium handle made from wrecked aircraft parts. One side of the handle is engraved with palm trees, a sun and 'VX22283 M. REED 2/3 M.G. BTN'. The other side is engraved with a scroll pattern and 'MADE IN CHANGI'. The handle is in two parts and is held together by the pivot at one end and by three steel rivets at the other end.

Made and used by VX22283 Private Percival Thomas Murray Reed, of 2/3 Machine Gun Battalion, while he was a prisoner of war of the Japanese in Changi. Reed had enlisted in Caulfield on 5 June 1940 and began his military training initially with 6 Training Battalion before being transferred to 2/8 Training Battalion. He was posted to 2/3 Machine Gun Battalion on 10 October and with that unit transferred to Warradale, South Australia on 30 October. Reed remained in South Australia until 8 April 1941 when the Battalion embarked for Sydney via Melbourne in preparation for overseas embarkation. The unit sailed from Sydney on 11 April arriving at Suez on 14 May. Travelling to Palestine the 2/3rd joined the 7th Division in preparation for the invasion of Syria. When the Syrian campaign was over by mid-July the 2/3rd remained in Syria as part of the occupation force for the rest of the year.

On 18 December Reed was evacuated to 7 Australian General Hospital via 2/4 Australian Field Ambulance suffering a fractured ankle. He returned to his unit on 21 January 1942 and embarked with them aboard the Orcades for Batavia. Disembarking on 18 February the 2/3rd was tasked with defending Java. The Japanese landed on 28 February and after a week of fierce fighting Reed was taken prisoner of war. Interned at Changi Reed was recovered from there on 5 September 1945. He returned to Australia aboard the Hospital Ship Oranje disembarking in Melbourne on 30 September. From 8 November Reed spent two months at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital (also known as the 115th Heidelberg Military Hospital) prior to discharge. Reed was demobilised on 31 January 1946.