Zippo cigarette lighter : Warrant Officer Class II S H Cheeseman, 1 Australian Logistic Support Company

Zippo brand chrome-plated brass flip-top cigarette lighter. Engraved on obverse '1 ALSC ANZAC SGT'S MESS BIENHOA VIETNAM'.

Cigarette lighter presented to Warrant Officer Class II S H Cheeseman for his service as President of 1 Australian Logistic Support Company Sergeants' Mess, Bien Hoa.

Sidney Harold Cheeseman was born at Crows Nest, New South Wales in 1935. He enlisted in the Australian Army as an apprentice in 1950, and after qualifying as a vehicle mechanic deployed to Korea with 1 Commonwealth Infantry Workshops in March 1955, returning to Australia in March 1956. Following his service in Korea, Cheeseman served with British Commonwealth Base Workshops in Japan, first in Kure and then at Hiro.

Cheeseman then served with the Motor Mechanic Training Centre at Bangkok, Thailand, where he and other Australian army personnel trained members of the Thai armed forces. During a six month period from 1963 to 1964 he was part of a detachment of five soldiers tasked with operating and maintaining vehicles for bases in the Australian Antarctic Territory. Then in October 1965 he was posted to Vietnam with 1 Australian Logistic Support Company based at Bien Hoa airbase, moving to Vung Tau in May 1966 as part of an advance party for the establishment of 101 Field Workshop. He returned from Vietnam in October of the same year.

Cheeseman was commissioned as an officer in April 1971. He was subsequently promoted to Major, and eventually appointed Officer Commanding 1 Watercraft Workshop in December 1979. His meritorious service with this unit saw him admitted as a Member of the Order of Australia in 1984. He retired from the army the following year.