Miniature Next of Kin Plaque : Captain R F Hughes, 1 Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps, AIF

Miniature bronze Next of Kin plaque. The miniature is an exact replica of the full sized plaque, with an image of Britannia and a lion together with the words 'HE DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR'. The initials 'ECP', for the designer Edward Carter Preston appear above the lion's right forepaw. The name of the dead soldier 'ROGER FORREST HUGHES' appears within a raised rectangle, but is engraved, rather than cast in raised letters as on the full sized items.

Part of a collection of British and foreign war medals and commemorative medallions and plaques assembled by the Honourable Sir Thomas Hughes MLC. This miniature Next of Kin plaque commemorates the service of Sir Thomas' son, Captain Roger Forrest Hughes, 1 Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps, who died of wounds received on 11 December 1916. His brother, Captain (later Group Captain) Geoffrey Forrest Hughes, of 10 Squadron Royal Flying Corps, recorded of the event: 'He was in 1st Field Ambulance A.A.M.C. and had only been in France for about 5 days when he was fatally wounded by a shell which burst in the Advanced Dressing Station at Bull Trench, near Flers while he was attending to a wounded man. He died at 36 Casualty Clearing Station at Heilly that night and is buried at Heilly Cemetery. I had heard he had arrived in France and journeyed by a car that was going from my unit, which was many miles north at Choques near Bethune, and actually arrived at Heilly shortly before he died and he was able to recognise me. I had no idea when I left the squadron of his actual whereabouts and merely took the chance of visiting 1st Division Headquarters at Heilly in the hope of finding out where his unit was so that I might be able to visit him later, not having seen him since I left Australia in March 1916. It was a most amazing thing that knowing nothing of his whereabouts or of the fact that he had been wounded I should actually arrive in the village where he was dying.' Miniature Next of Kin plaques were not produced or issued officially, but had to be purchased privately. It is possible that this plaque was one of those manufactured in the 1920s by Messers Wright & Sons, of Edgeware, Middlesex, at a cost of 13s 6d each, although other makers are thought to have existed.