Horseshoe for wedding dress : Mrs Golda Jean Neall (nee Ellis)

Cardboard horseshoe covered with folded white satin. A loop of mercerised cotton lace is attached to the top of the shoe so that it can be suspended from the wearer's arm. A pale blue silk ribbon, attached to the horseshoe for 'something blue', is printed in black 'Good Luck Murray Bridge Cheer-Up Society'. The shoe once had small sprigs of artificial flowers attached to the top and the heels.

Good luck horseshoe presented by members of the Murray Bridge chapter of the Cheer-Up Society to Miss Golda Ellis on the day of her marriage to Lieutenant Oliver Zachariah Neall, of 2/8 Battalion, at Murray Bridge, South Australia on 23 October 1943. Although Golda had wanted to support the Australian war effort by joining one of the womens' services a legacy of childhood polio, which required her to wear a leg caliper, prevented her from doing so. Instead, she joined the Murray Bridge chapter of the Adelaide Cheer-Up Society, while continuing to live at home with her parents. The members met troop trains on their way between Victoria and South Australia and provided the men with fruit, chocolate and other small comforts. Golda met Oliver 'Ozzie' Neall, then a sergeant, after he returned from service in North Africa and Greece, where he had been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for gallantry at Tobruk in January 1941. While on leave he called on her parents, who were friends of his parents, and was asked to call Golda to join them at afternoon tea. She recalled that he found her scrubbing the bathroom floor and that 'it was love at first sight'. The couple became engaged but Neall was posted to the Northern Territory. Granted leave unexpectedly he gave Golda just ten days in which to prepare for their wedding. A wedding dress was purchased in Adelaide, while friends and neighbours at Murray Bridge provided flowers from their gardens and helped with the catering.