Green enamel mug : Lieutenant A L Walker, 2/1 Machine Gun Battalion

Metal mug, enamelled in moss green, with a darker green lip. There is chipping to the handle, base and lip.

Enamel mug used by VX13857 Lieutenant Archibald Larnach Walker, 2/1 Machine Gun Regiment during his incarceration as a prisoner of the Germans. Walker was born on 12 December 1913 at Brighton, Victoria. When he enlisted on 1 May 1940 at Caulfield, he was a single man working as a stock and station agent. He had also seen six years service with the militia - four years with 17/19 Light Horse Regiment from March 1934; then with 17 Machine Gun Regiment from July 1937 to February 1939, as a corporal and later sergeant.

Walker was appointed lieutenant upon his enlistment and was taken on strength of 2/1 Machine Gun Battalion on 24 May 1940. After training, he embarked aboard the transport Ulysses on 31 July, part of the Third Convoy leaving Australia. Rather than risk travel through the Mediterranean directly to Egypt now that Italy had entered the war as a German ally, the convoy was diverted to England via Cape Town.

Ulysses arrived in Liverpool on 11 October. Walker proceeded to the AIF Deport at Bulford. His battalion embarked for the Middle East on 16 November 1940 and, sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, arrived in Egypt on 30 December. Walker almost immediately contracted impetigo contagiosa (a skin condition) and was evacuated to 8 British General Hospital for a month - he was transferred to the Camp Training Regiment upon his discharge on 8 February 1941. His unit sailed for Greece on 29 March.

Walker was reported 'missing in action' a month later, on 30 April. A few months later, the Red Cross was informed he was a prisoner of the Germans; later, in mid February 1942, it was learned he was held at Oflag VIB (Dossel); on 12 September of that year he was moved to Oflag VIIB (Eichstatt, Bavaria). In April 1945 the camp was evacuated an the prisoners were marched to Stalag VII A at Moosburg.

When the prisoners evacuated the camp, many of the 'old timers', including Walker had accumulated many items, as they had been prisoners for many years. The German Camp Commandant, who had been a prisoner himself in the First World War made an arrangement whereby the prisoners packed up the possessions they could not take with them. The possessions were locked in a room and when the camp was liberated he let the Red Cross know about the items and gave them the key. Eighteen months after Walker returned to Australia his kit bag arrived with the items he had packed away, except for his diary, which had been removed. This mug was one of the items that was returned in his kit bag.

He was recovered from Europe by advancing Allied forces and arrived in England on 10 May 1945, before embarking for Australia in early July, arriving in Sydney on 8 August. Instead on being discharged Walker elected to remain a serving member of the army on 3 September, returning to his original unit, 2/1 Machine Gun Battalion. He was made a temporary captain in May 1946 and was finally discharged in April 1947.