Mothers and Widows Badge : Mrs Dorothy Christie

Black silk ribbon with woven design, in yellow, red and white, showing wattle sprays, 'Rising Sun' badge and 'FOR AUSTRALIA'. Ribbon is attached at the top to a white metal bar impressed on the front with laurel leaves and on the back with the serial number '6944'. The back also has a brooch pin fitting. The lower edge of the ribbon is attached to another white metal bar bearing a seven pointed brass star attached with a split pin.

The Mothers and Widows Badge was issued to the wives or mothers of those Australian service personnel of the AIF or ANMEF who were killed in action or who died from causes directly attributable to their service. A single star attached to the lower bar represented the life lost, and further stars were issued for any additional son killed.

Mrs Dorothy Christie wore this badge to commemorate the loss of her son, Alfred. Aged eighteen, Alfred was keen to enlist upon the outbreak of war in 1914, but his mother refused to give consent for her underage son to join the AIF. So he left home, taking a steamer to Melbourne where he enlisted under the fictitious name of Alfred Delaney in October 1914, giving a false age, place of birth and next of kin. Alfred joined the 14th Battalion and landed at Gallipoli on the afternoon of 26 April 1915, taking up positions on the Second Ridge in the localities of Quinn's and Courtney's Posts. He was reported to have been killed in action on either 1 or 2 May 1915 and was buried at Monash Valley by the battalion’s chaplain on 11 May. After the war Alfred was reinterred in the Shrapnel Valley Cemetery.