Bakelite picnic plate : Captain A L Walker, 2/1 Machine Gun Battalion

Small green bakelite picnic plate "Peter Pan Ware N.Z. 57' is moulded into the base. A small section of the underside has been heat-affected, resulting in a blistered whitened surface, while the base is impact cracked

New Zealand made picnic set plate 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. Ulysses arrived in Liverpool on 11 October. Lieutenant Walker proceeded to the AIF Deport at Bulford. His battalion embarked for the Middle East on 16 November 1940 and 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.

A few days after arriving in Athens the 2/1st moved to Gerania in the north to support units manning the Aliakmon line. The machine gunners fought alongside the infantry for the rest of the campaign and were evacuated between the end of April and the beginning of May. Captain Walker, however, was not evacuated and was noted as missing in action on 30 April 1941. In July he was noted as a prisoner of war, which was confirmed in September. He had been captured by the Germans during the withdrawal from Greece in April.

Walker was first held at Oflag VB prisoner of war camp at Biberach, Germany. In February 1942 he was transferred to Oflag VIB at Warburg. After a mass escape there, known as the 'Warburg wire job', all British and Commonwealth officers were transferred from Warburg. Captain Walker was sent to Oflag VIIB at Eichstatt, Bavaria. He remained in this camp until it was evacuated in April 1945 due to the Allied advance.

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. Meanwhile, the prisoners were marched from Eichstatt to Stalag VII A at Moosburg, where Captain Walker was liberated, arriving in England in May 1945. He returned to Victoria in July 1945 aboard the Mauratania. He elected to remain with the AIF and served until April 1947 when he was transferred to the Australian Army Reserve.

This plate was one of the items in Walker's kit bag. It originally belonged to a New Zealand Officer, Captain James C 'Jimmy' Scoular. Walker messed with Scoular while interned in Oflag VIIB and they both used the plate. Scoular made a jumper for Walker (REL/05674) during their captivity.

'Peter Pan' was the proprietary name for a range of New Zealand plastics made by the firm of H. C. Urlwin Ltd of Christchurch, moulder and designer of picnic sets, radios, kitchen gear, game pieces, fountain pens etc, mostly from Bakelite in the pre-1939 period. From 1936, the firm's initial products were electric iron connectors and flush switch parts but they rapidly moved into picnic sets and tableware.