Souvenir of Palestine : Sapper D Graham, 2/5 Australian Field Park Company

Rectangular green velveteen fabric table cover with a plain white cotton backing, red border and blue fringe. The face of the cover is embroidered, in yellow, orange, red green and white. It has a border of date palms and stylised Middle Eastern historic building, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and David's Tower. A stylised Australian Coat of Arms is in the center of the cover with a stylised Rising Sun badge above and a small camel caravan below. They frame a crude Rising Sun design over the words 'Australian Commonwealth / Military Forces', which sits over the NSW coat of arms with a scroll bearing the words ' 19 Souvenir of Palestine 41'. Parts of the embroidered outline have been filled in with blue, brown and green paint.

NX57200 Sapper David Graham was born on 3 May 1914 at North Sydney, NSW. He was working as a storeman, packer and driver when he enlisted in the Second AIF on 13 July 1940. He embarked from Sydney on 9 April 1941, arriving in the Middle East on 3 May. He joined 2/5 Field Park Company from the Engineers Training Battalion on 18 September 1941. After the entry of Japan into the war, Graham embarked from the Middle East on 2 February 1942 to join the fighting in the Pacific. While at sea Singapore fell and he arrived in Australia on 3 March 1942. He spent several months in Australia before embarking for New Guinea, arriving at Port Moresby on 14 November 1942. He served in New Guinea for nearly a year before returning to Australiaon on 4 October 1943. On 28 November he was admitted to hospital with malaria and was discharged almost a month later. He spent more time in and out of hospital in the next few years before embarking for service in Borneo on 23 May 1945. He served in Borneo, including Balikpapan, for over five months, before returning to Australia on board HMS Implacable on 11 November 1945. Graham was discharged on 19 November 1945. This embroidered souvenir of Palestine was purchased by Graham while serving in the Middle East in 1941. These types of souvenirs were very popular with Australian troops, they were easy to send home and were colourful. The vendors would have a number of designs for sale already machine embroidered, which the soldier could then have personalised with a date or message. Soldiers could also design their own souvenir, but the souvenir here is one of the former type. Unlike similar fabric souvenirs for sale in Egypt, where the outline of an object such a pyramid would be in filled with embroidery, Palestinian souvenirs almost always have a machine embroidered outline of an object that is then filled in with paint. Palestinian souvenirs were often seen displayed for sale outside houses in country villages.