Illustrated khaki uniform scrap depicting a soldier holding a flag : Lance Corporal E C Barnes, Royal Army Medical Corps

Square patch of summerweight khaki drill with 10 mm wide fringed edges, on which has been inked, to the right of the square, an illustration of an infantryman in Field Service uniform, wearing a Foreign Service Pattern helmet with neck flap, a bandolier, holster, and holding a half-furled Union Jack in one hand and a pistol in the other. The flag is coloured in black and red ink. The words 'WITH LOVE' appear at the top left and the words 'FROM / LC CPL BARNES / PRETORIA' at lower left. Barnes's name appears on an inked red background. The khaki drill is spotted with light staining.

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.