Wrist watch and brooch : Miss M Dircks, Voluntary Aid Detachment

Small women's pocket watch enclosed within a round dark brown leather protector with attached watchband. There is a small hole and slot at the top of the leather protector which allows the watch winder and fob loop to protrude. Attached to the loop is a brass spring loaded fob clip to which is attached a brass brooch in the shape of a tied bow. The arms of the bow have been enamalled black.

Worn by Margaret 'Peg' Dircks of Strathfield, NSW during her service with the Voluntary Aid Detachment. Dircks studied science at Sydney University and graduated in 1937; during the war she worked for the soap makers Lever Brothers in their chemical laboratory at Alexandria, Sydney. She had met David Kenneth Caird Williamson at university and they married on 5 July 1944; he worked at Shell Petroleum in a reserved occupation. Margaret Dircks joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) in early 1942 and was one of the first two women to volunteer as ambulance drivers in New South Wales. Her family relates that in order to practice driving, she borrowed a David Jones delivery truck and drove it around Sydney until she felt confident in her abilities.