Embroidered handkerchief : Private E D Hood, 29 Battalion, AIF

Cream silk handkerchief embroidered with twisted mercerised cotton embroidery thread. The scalloped edge of the handkerchief is finished with pink buttonhole stitch. There are four cranes in the centre, in white, black and red, each in an identical pose with outstretched wings. Around them is a wreath of large and small white and pink flowers with green and white leaves.

This souvenir handkerchief was sent home to Australia to his wife, Phoebe, by Edward Duncan Hood before he was killed in action at Flers, on the Somme in France, on 25 October 1916. Hood was born at Carrum, Victoria, in 1891, and was working as a labourer at Mannerim, near Queenscliff, before joining the AIF. A married man with three young children, he nevertheless enlisted in January 1916, becoming Private 2661, a member of the 5th Reinforcements to 29 Infantry Battalion. He sailed from Australia in April 1916 and joined his unit in France in August of the same year. Only two months later he was killed, probably by shellfire near the ruined town of Gueudecourt, during the preparation for an attack by the 5th Australian Division on the enemy trench system in front of le Transloy. Edward Hood is buried at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, about 4 kilometres south west of the area where he was killed.

• Embroidered handkerchief : Private E D Hood, 29 Battalion, AIF