Souvenir silver plated notebook : Sergeant J E Buttsworth, 30 Battalion, AIF

A small silver plated brass souvenir notebook and pencil, with an enamelled crest of the Blue Funnel Line ship SS 'Anchises'. The front cover of the notebook is hinged and can be secured by inserting the metal propelling pencil through the catches on the front and back covers. At the top centre is a small suspension loop. Inside the notebook is a gilt edged pad of paper with a message on the first page in ink and pencil reading 'To Millie with best wishes from (Mizpah) Jack (England) 11/10/16'. Several pages have been torn out of the pad. Impressed on the pencil are the words 'ENGLAND' and 'V.S.LEAD'.

Associated with the service of 3765 Sergeant John Edmund (Jack) Buttsworth. Originally from Cessnock, NSW, Buttsworth was the son of Ebenezer Ernest and Fanny Buttsworth and was engaged to Millicent Anne Walker of 'Beechlands', Gerringong, NSW. He was living in Burke and working as a telegraphist when he enlisted as a private on 10 November 1915 at the age of 23 years and 7 months. Buttsworth sailed from Sydney onboard HMAT Anchises on 24 August 1916 and on 11 October 1916 disembarked at Plymouth, from where he sent this notebook as a souvenir of the ship to Millicent. Inside the notebook is a short message to her with the word 'Mizpah' written in brackets and it is possible that is a reference to the Mizpah Benediction 'The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.'

Buttsworth travelled from England to France, where he was posted to 2 Platoon, A Company, 30 Battalion, and promoted to the rank of sergeant in September 1917. In April 1918, whilst distributing rum rations to members of his platoon in reserve trenches behind Villers-Bretonneux, Buttsworth was badly wounded on his left side by shrapnel. He was taken to 9 Australian Field Ambulance, where he died of his wounds on 8 April, aged 27 years. He is buried in France at St. Pierre Cemetery, Amiens. Millicent never married after learning of his death. This notebook is one of several mementoes sent by Buttsworth to his fiancé, and were kept by Millicent until her death in 1967. They are the only remaining items relating to Buttsworth's service, as all his personal effects that were shipped home on HMAT Barunga were lost at sea when the transport ship was torpedoed and sunk by an enemy submarine off the Scilly Isles in the North Atlantic on 15 July 1918.