Small enamelled Egyptian sweetheart brooch : Private J Booth, 20 Battalion AIF

Small enamelled silver sweetheart brooch featuring a purple miniature of a purple Egyptian 5 m stamp flanked on each side by a stylised lotus flower in red, blue, white and azure. There is a pin brooch fitted attached to the reverse, which is impressed '800' and 'G'.

Related to the service of 164 Private John (Jack) Booth, A Company, 20th Battalion. A shipwright of Balmain, NSW, he enlisted in March 1915 and embarked on HMAT Berrima in June of that year. This souvenir brooch was purchased by Private Booth in Egypt and sent home as a present to his aunt, Portia Bennett. He was transferred to the 20 Battalion ten days before it went into the lines at Broodseide Ridge, Passchendaele. He was noted as missing in action on 9 October 1917, but it was later changed to killed in action after his pay book was handed in, that had been removed from his body. He was buried near where he fell. His body was not recovered, or recovered but not identified after the war and his name is listed on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial.