'ARMENTIERES' sweetheart brooch : Lieutenant W G Scales, 21 Battalion AIF

Sweetheart brooch with a French bayonet wrapped in a wreath and the word, 'ARMENTIERES'. It has a brooch pin on the reverse.

Associated with the service of Lieutenant William Gordon Scales. Born in Mitta Mitta Victoria in 1895, William Gordon 'Bill' Scales was working as an axeman when he enlisted in the AIF on 12 June 1915. Private Scales embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT Demosthenes on 16 July 1915 with 24 Battalion reinforcements. Private Scales served on Gallipoli from September 1915, until he was evacuated to Malta with dysentery in mid November. In March 1916 he went to France, and served with 24 Battalion on the Western Front through 1916. He was transferred to 21 Battalion on 11 May 1917 and promoted to second lieutenant. Scales was awarded the Military Medal for his actions during the capture of trenches near Bullecourt on 3 May 1917. In mid October 1917, he was promoted to Lieutenant. Prior to this he received a gunshot would to his thigh resulting in the amputation of his right leg early in 1918. He returned to Australia later that year.