Fabric souvenir draughts board : Private J L Coventry, 27th Battalion, AIF

Fabric scarf featuring a draughts board and the words 'Draughts the favorite game of our soldiers in the trenches and our sailors on the sea.'

This souvenir was purchased and brought back to Australia by 6063 Private John Livingstone Coventry, who served with the 27th Battalion, AIF. Evidence from other examples suggests a set of cardboard draughts, printed on squares of card and coloured red or blue, were also issued as playing pieces for this set. They mirror the designs in the border.

Coventry, born at Mitcham, South Australia, was a 29 year old mill hand when he enlisted on 28 September 1916. He sailed from Adelaide for service on the Western Front aboard the troopship HMAT A19 'Afric' on 6 November 1916. Coventry survived the war and returned to Australia on 13 July 1919. The remainder of his working life was spent in Broken Hill, NSW, before he died in Adelaide in 1945.