Souvenir scarf : Mrs Hester Allen

Square fringed damask weave silk scarf in red, emerald green and purple, with intergral silk fringe. The main body of the scarf is red with a central woven pattern of crescent shapes. Each corner bears a purple woven mosque flanked by palms and flowers. The scarf is bordered with a pattern of leaves and flowers, purple on green or green on red. One corner is embroidered in yellow machine chainstitch 'To Mother From Bob and Steve'.

Silk scarf sent home to Mrs Hester Alice Allen from Egypt by her sons, 3002 Private Stephen Charles (Steve) and 3003 Private Robert Beattie (Bob) Allen, who enlisted in the AIF in July 1915.

They were allocated to the 10th Reinforcements to the 13th Battalion and embarked from Sydney on board A70 HMAT Ballarat on 6 September 1915. They joined A company of their battalion in Egypt in February 1916 and later went to France. The brothers spent most of their service together until they were both killed on 14 August 1916, when the 13th Battalion was engaged in the heavy fighting for Mouquet Farm near Pozieres.

Stephen and Robert Allen were together on a fatigue party, carrying supplies to their battalion, when they were killed by the same artillery shell during a heavy German barrage. Stephen was 24 years old. Robert was 27. Their bodies were not recovered for burial.

Born in 1854, Hester Allen lost her husband and two infant children in the late 1890s. Despite this she managed to keep her family together. The close-knit family - mother, two girls and two boys - lived together and pooled their wages. Bob and Steve allocated part of their military pay to their mother. Apart from purchasing small necessities with their remaining pay, they pitched in together to buy the best presents and cards they could afford for their sisters and mother. Hester Allen lived long enough to receive her sons' medals and commemorative next-of-kin plaques. She died in 1925.