Italian gas mask and canister : Driver W A Evans, Australian Army

T35 Italian gas mask with front fitted metal filter canister. The face mask is moulded from brown rubber and has two circular eye pieces mounted in brown painted metal alloy fittings. The eye pieces are made with a sheet of film between two layers of glass. The left side of the mask is embossed with the designation 'T.35' and the size 'I' above the fleur-de-lis symbol of the manufacturer. The mask is secured to the face by two khaki webbing straps which go across the back of the head from side to side and a third strap which is secured to the front of the mask and travels over the crown to buckle to the other straps at the back of the head. Both side straps have a section of covered springs to ensure a close fit against the head. The top strap is stamped with a fleur-de-lis and the number '72225'. At the front of the mask is a circular perforated air intake valve made of brown painted alloy. Below this is screw thread valve for attaching the filter. The metal alloy filter is also painted brown and is stencilled with 'T.35' on the side and '2-1937' on the base.

Collected by NX15070 Driver William Allan Evans of Canterbury, NSW during service in the North Africa campaign. Born in January 1919, Evans enlisted in the AIF on 21 May 1940. He served with the artillery during the war and was discharged on 11 September 1946 from 2 Australian Artillery Training Regiment.