Mess tin : Lance Corporal D W Small, 4th Victorian Contingent, AIR

Round steel mounted pattern mess tin with lid with remnants of khaki paint finish. Stamped on bottom 'V' 'D' [indecipherable due to corrosion (?)] 'I' '93'. '[?]RVEYSHAN&C[?]' '[?]LBOU(?)'

Duncan William Small was born at Mortlake, Victoria on March 1 1867. He was employed as a hairdresser and had a fondness for sport when he enlisted as private, service number 93, in the Fourth Victorian Bushmens' Contingent, Australian Imperial Regiment to the Boer War in April 1900. The contingent embarked on the transport 'Victorian' from Melbourne on 1 May 1900, arriving at the Mozambique port city of Beira on the 23rd.

Soon after arriving Small received a severe hip injury when his horse fell and rolled over him. Keen to rejoin the fighting, he convinced the medical staff to discharge him early. Later, ignoring his still tender hip, he agreed to take part in a football match in which he aggravated the injury to such an extent that he was invalided to Australia. While in South Africa he was promoted to lance corporal.

Arriving home refreshed it was not long before he readied himself to join the next contingent due to leave in mid-February 1901. While awaiting word to embark in Melbourne in early January he contracted typhoid and returned to Mortlake, seriously ill. He died at home, tended by his parents and siblings, on 2 February 1901.

It was reported that 300 Mounted Rifles followed in procession behind his coffin to the cemetery. He was buried in the Mortlake Cemetery beside his grandparents.

Two years later the loss of Small was still being felt in the community. In March 1903 a monument was unveiled in the local Botanic Gardens to the district's three fallen soldiers from the Boer War: Small, Corporal J Yates and Private W Clarke. The unveiling was attended by over 600 people.