Box for 'Yerri' Hansi Doll : Miss J E Bage, Voluntary Aid Detachment

White, red and blue striped cardboard box for 'Yerri', a doll made by French artist Hansi to commemorate the recapture of Alsace by France in 1917. The lid has a black and white print of 'Yerri' and the text ' PREMIER PRIX / CONCOURS DES POUPEES / FANCAISES ET ALLIEES / PARIS 1917 ' ['First Prize Contest French doll and allies Paris 1917'] on the top left hand corner.

Jessie Eleanor Bage was born on 23 March 1890 in Victoria, and was the daughter of Dr Charles Bage MD MA. During the First World War, Bage joined the Volunteer Aid Detachment (VAD). Voluntary Aid Detachments were established during the First World War by members of the Australian Red Cross and the Order of St John. Members received instruction in first aid and home nursing from the St John Ambulance Association. Initially they worked without pay in hospitals and convalescent homes, alongside doctors and nurses.

Prior to 1916 Australian VADs were restricted from travelling overseas by the Defence Council. This policy was changed in 1916 after a request from Great Britain, and the first detachment of 30 official Australian VADs to serve overseas left Australia in September 1916, Bage was one of the 30. She left Australia on 28 September 1916 on RMS Ostely. The journey lasted two months and she arrived in England on 9 November.

Two weeks after arrival she started working in King George Military Hospital and was paid directly by the military. Bage was considered part of the British Red Cross Society while a VAD in London and wore that uniform. She passed her month long probation and signed a six month contract. The work she did at the King George Military hospital was tending wounds, cleaning and assisting doctors and nurses with their daily duties. While in this position Jessie witnessed firsthand the effect of the German bombing on London.

On 4 August 1917, Bage started work at the 30th General Hospital in France. While in France she purchases these dolls for her niece Helen Clark, to whom she was a God Mother. In a letter dated 24 June 1918 from 10 General Hospital Rouen she states 'I got two lovely dolls for Helen, one being the prize doll for 1917. One is a little French peasant or rather Alsatian peasant I think. The other is a delightful little boy doll dressed in a velvet suit and has lovely red wool for hair. If I can find a box to send them in I will do so as they are china and I would not like them to be broken. If I can't I will keep them for her till I see her. I wonder when that will be.'.

These dolls were based on a design by Jean-Jacques Waltz who was born in Colmar, France on 23 February 1873. Waltz went under the pseudonym of 'Hansi' and was a French artist of Alsatian origin. He was a staunch pro-French activist. During the war he served as a translator in the French army, attaining the rank of lieutenant, and producing engravings and postcards mocking the Germans. Annexed by the Germans in 1871, the Alsace/Lorraine territories remained contentious and Hansi designed these dolls to promote both partiotism in the region with a desire to see them reunited with France. The dolls were produced in 1917 by his publishing company, PJ Gallais; he was awarded the Concours de Poupee in the same year for this effort. Alsace/Lorraine was eventually annexed by the Republic of France, an action which was recognised by the Treaty of Versailles.

Bage returned to Australia in 1920, and in 1935 became the first woman appointed to the Royal Melbourne Hospital Management Committee. For her service with a number of social welfare associations she was appointed an Officer to the Order of the British Empire on 2 January 1956. Jessie Bage died in 1980.