US Army service dress trousers : Officer Cornelius de Bakker, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration

US Army officers privately made olive drab wool elastique service dress trousers with metal zippered fly, single plastic button fastening at the waist, slash pockets in each side seam, an inset change pocket set below the right front waistband, and two inset rear hip pockets with pointed flaps secured by olive green plastic buttons. Six self fabric belt keepers are sewn to the outer waistband. The waistband and fly are lined with brown artificial silk. The pocket bags are of cream cotton twill. A brown and white woven label reading 'REGULATION ARMY OFFICER'S TROUSERS' is sewn inside the back waist. 'DE BEKKER W' is written in ink on the right front pocket bag.

Associated with the service of Mr Cornelius de Bakker. De Bakker was born in the Netherlands in 1910 and served with the Dutch Underground Movement in active resistance against the German forces during the Second World War. Wanted by the Gestapo, de Bakker helped to store and distribute weapons and ammunition needed by the resistance movement and sabotaged efforts by the Germans to transport Dutch citizens into forced labour camps. Assisted by his wife, de Bakker also hid refugees and noted enemies of the Nazi regime - downed Allied airmen and Jewish families. The latter resulting in the de Bakkers permanently adopting two children, orphaned by the war.

In 1944 de Bakker joined the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Association (UNRRA), an agency set up in 1943 to help rehabilitate the many thousands of people displaced by the war and to provide relief to areas liberated from Axis powers. Although the United Nations was not founded until 1945, the term 'United Nations' had been in use since 1942 to refer to the Allied countries of the Second World War. De Bakker worked in conjunction with the United States Army rendering aid to the displaced. In total UNRRA helped almost 8 million refugees and operated displaced persons camps in Europe until 1947, and in Asia until 1949.

In 1951 de Bakker immigrated to Australia. He was presented with the Resistance Commemorative Cross on 1 July 1982 by the Netherlands Consul 'for service to the Kingdom of The Netherlands in the resistance of the Peoples of The Netherlands against the occupying forces during World War II'.