Illustrated poem painted on khaki uniform scrap : Lance Corporal E C Barnes, Royal Army Medical Corps

Rectangular patch of summerweight khaki drill with 10 mm wide fringed edges, on which has been inked a poem accompanied by illustrations. The poem is titled 'GOOD LUCK / FROM / LC CPL BARNES' and reads 'ON A PIECE OF KHAKI FROM AN OLD COAT I HAVE WORN / DISCARDED BECAUSE IT WAS ALL TATTERED AND TORN / TIS NOT A GOLD EDGED OR HIGHLY PRICED CARD / STILL IT CONVEYS MY BEST WISHES AND KINDEST REGARDS / PRETORIA'. The title is framed within a horseshoe with Barnes's name appearing on a scroll, with both illustrated in red ink. The poem is bordered by a pair of flags - a Union Jack to the left and an White Ensign to the right. These employ red and black ink. A small spray of flowers including bluebells appears underneath the poem, coloured in red and blue ink. The first letter of each line of the poem and the word 'Pretoria' are coloured red. The khaki drill is stained.

Painted uniform scrap related to the service of 13854 Lance Corporal Edward Charles Barnes in South Africa in 1900/01. Barnes was born in NSW, Australia on 10 March 1871. He moved to England sometime in the 1890s, gaining an engineering apprenticeship at the Woolwich Arsenal and meeting his future wife, Elizabeth Jenner, whom he married on 7 June 1897, before volunteering for service in South Africa with the Royal Army Medical Corps. Clasps on Barnes's Boer War Medal indicate he saw service in the Orange Free State, Transvaal and Natal campaigns in 1900 and 1901. He returned to London where he and Elizabeth lived for another nine years before returning to Australia in 1910, settling in Lithgow, NSW. Barnes's armaments expertise ensured his immediate employment at the Lithgow Small Arms Factory, where he continued to work as an engineer until the late 1930s. He died on 1 November 1957. A number of examples of soldier's paintings on uniform scraps exist from this period, usually patriotic in nature. This example has been personalised by Barnes with a poem describing the making and sending of the scrap. It also locates Barnes in Pretoria.