Silver War Badge : Warrant Officer Class II F G Jurd, 5 Pioneer Battalion, AIF

Silver War Badge with impressed serial number 'A97699' on reverse. The badge is circular with the words 'FOR KING AND EMPIRE SERVICES RENDERED' around the rim, and a voided cypher and crown of King George V in the centre. The reverse has a hinged vertical pin clasp. These badges were issued to men who could no longer serve because age, wounds or sickness had rendered permanently unfit for further service.

Frederick George Jurd was born in London in 1870, and enlisted in the Royal Marines at the age of 19. He emigrated to Australia some time after 1910. On 15 August 1914, aged 43, Jurd enlisted in the naval contingent of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force as an Able Seaman serving with it until January 1915. In May 1915, he enlisted as a private in 2 Infantry Battalion AIF. He joined the Battalion on Gallipoli and served with it until the evacuation. In 1916, he was posted to 5 Pioneer Battalion, and served with it for the remainder of the war, rising to the rank of warrant officer. Jurd was decorated three times in 1918, receiving the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the Military Medal and the Belgian Croix de Guerre. He returned to Australia in February 1919, and was discharged medically unfit due to a gun shot wound to his right leg, suffered at Bellicourt. Frederick Jurd died in Sydney in 1939.