Improvised identity disc: Private Thomas Henry Jenks, 25 Battalion, AIF

Improvised identity disc made from a British penny. On one side, the coin has been ground down and the following details are stamped: 'T.H.JENKS 25 BATT. A.I.F. 5690 C.E'. On the other side of the coin, the image of Britannia has also been ground down but is still visible. The disc is kept with an envelope addressed to the Australian War Memorial and post marked July 1929.

This improvised identity disc was made from a British penny and was found in a lady's change when she caught a bus in London in 1929. She discovered the coin had a soldier's details stamped into one side and realising it was an Australian soldier, she gave the disc to an Australian man who was returning home. He endevoured to find the soldier or his family and contacted the Australian War Memorial, which was then based in Melbourne. The Memorial discovered the soldier was Thomas Henry Jenks, a single farmer from Queensland who had served with the 25th Battalion AIF and died at the 2nd Canadian General Hospital on 10 October 1917 from wounds received on 4 October.

Jenks had been wounded twice during the war, the first time in March 1917 when he received a shell splinter to his face. The second time was when he was mortally wounded in October. On this occasion he received shrapnel wounds to his head, chest, right arm and legs. He suffered a compound fracture to his skull, a penetrating chest wound and his right leg was amputated at the thigh. He was buried at the Mont Huon Military Cemetery at Le Treport, France.

In March 1929 the Memorial managed to locate Jenks' mother and next of kin, Mrs Rosina Birch, and sent the disc to her. She decided to donate it to the National Collection and returned it to the Memorial. How Jenks' disc came to be in England in the 1920's is unknown. After his death all his effects, including three identity discs, were sent home to his mother in Queensland. However, there are indications in the correspondence between the Memorial and Mrs Birch that the improvised disc was not familiar to her and unlikely to be one of the three returned to there in 1918. Mrs Birch died in 1930.