Colour patch sweetheart brooch : Miss D J Harvey

Sweetheart brooch featuring an enamelled unit colour patch for the Australian Base and Lines of Communication Units, Australian Army Ordnance Corps. This includes the 2/10 Ordnance Workshop. The colour patch is a blue square containing a smaller red circle, on a grey background. On the back of the brooch is a hinged pin clasp and a fine safety chain. The reverse of the badge is stamped 'ST.9IL'.

This badge was given to Miss Dorothy Jean 'Jean' Harvey by VX58285 Acting Corporal Francis Alan 'Frank' Burchnall after his enlistmented in the 2nd AIF in 1941. It represents the Australian Base and Lines of Communication Units, Australian Army Ordnance Corps to which Burchnall was attached as a member of the 2/10 Ordnance Workshop. Jean kept the badge as a memento of him while he was on active service overseas.

Jean and Frank had originally met in the early 1930s when they both attended Long Gully Primary School, Bendigo, but lost touch as teenagers. They reconnected again in 1938 at a community singing evening when Jean was 15 and Frank 16. It was love at first sight, and although the couple had no car, no phone or much money between them, they began courting. Frank's family was well known and respected within the community, his father was a senior sorter at the Bendigo Post Office and had served overseas during the First World War in the Australian Pay Corps. Therefore Frank was trusted to escort Jean to Church of England socials, to the pictures, and to his home when his parents were present.

Both families assumed the two would marry, and so did Jean and Frank. However, when Frank enlisted on 24 June 1941, the couple decided to put off their engagement until after the war as Frank did not want to come back home to Jean crippled or infirm. Frank's father, Francis Robert 'Frank' Burchnall, also enlisted by putting his age down so both men could serve together.

They were posted to 2/10 Ordnance Workshop on 2 January 1942. With the rapid advance of Japanese troops across Malaya, the Burchnall's hastily embarked for overseas service on 10 January as part of 8 Division, with no friends or family to see them off. Jean was left with only letters, photographs and this badge as keepsakes. The convoy arrived in Malaya on 26 January, but with the fall of Singapore on 15 February most members of 8 Division became prisoners of war, including Frank and his father. Both were initially interned at Changi, before being transported to Sandakan aboard the tramp ship Ubi Maru on 7 July.

Frank Snr died from disease on 19 May 1943 aged 52, his son acting as his carer until his death. Once this news reached Jean and the Burchnall family the fate of Frank began to look grim. Apart from one POW postcard ('I am well, being treated well') nothing had been heard from him since his capture, despite Jean writing letters to him every week. In 1944 Frank's mother suggested Jean buy some furniture in preparation for her wedding to Frank, but the uncertainty of not knowing if Frank would ever come home was always in the back of Jean's mind and she did not think this was a good idea. During this time Jean kept herself busy, and became Bendigo's first female bank teller at the town's Union Bank .

On 15 August 1945 when thousands of Australians were joining in peace celebrations, Jean was not. Although she had not officially heard of Frank's fate, she feared the worst. In a 2005 interview given to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VP Day Jean said 'I knew, it was like it was psychic, but I just knew, like when something terrible happens to your family'. Frank's date of death was later confirmed as 4 June 1945. He had succumbed to disease while on the Second Sandakan Death March.

In late 1946 Jean married 51815 Sergeant Edward Lee Strachan, RAAF. The couple settled on a dairy farm in Cohuna, Victoria and raised a family. Jean initially stayed in contact with Mrs Burchnall, but over the years the women lost touch. However, Jean never let go of her memories of Frank, and she kept the few items she had from him, including this badge.