Ypres souvenir plate : Private H J Moss, Essex Yeomanry, British Army

Souvenir white ceramic soup bowl. In the centre is a blue crest bearing the arms of the Belgian city of Ypres surmounted by a crown, above crossed billiard cues and nine billiard balls. The crest is surrounded by a wreath and the words 'YPER' at the top, and 'DE WARE STRYDERS' in a scroll at the bottom. The rear of the plate is stamped with the makers mark 'M M VERMEREN-COCHE XL BRUXELLES' and a faint handwritten inscription of which only 'Cloth Hall' can be deciphered.

Souvenir plate collected from the Cloth Hall in Ypres, Belgium by 80262 Private Harry James Moss, Essex Yeomanry, British Army. Ypres was of strategic importance during the First World War and was the scene of almost constant fighting. The medieval Cloth Hall was the town's civic and commercial centre but it, and much of the town, was destroyed by heavy German artillery bombardments. The building was reconstructed to the orginal medieval design after the war. Moss was born in Suffolk, England on 5 March 1897. He served with the British Army's Essex Yeomanry, 3rd Cavalry Division during the First World War and later migrated to Australia. During the Second World War Moss enlisted in the Volunteer Defence Corps in Rutherglen, VIC. He was appointed lieutenant and served with the 22nd Battalion from March 1942 until March 1944.