Engraved mess tins : Sapper Vane Patrick Sheldon 'Pat' Williams, 2/8 Field Company

Pair of nested rectangular mess tins each with a hinged, one piece metal handle, designed to fold over the top of the tin for compact storage. Both have stamped makers markings on one end of each tin, at the handle, that read 'C & B LTD / 1939 [broad arrow symbol]'.

On the base of the larger tin is engraved 'POW 28-4-41 VX10556' above ' "Bomber" White "Buck" Buchanan {Lucky Blokes' and '"Pat" Williams'. Beneath this is engraved a New Zealand Army badge, a map of Australia and the Rising Sun badge.

One longer side is engraved, 'KANTARA GAZA RIDG E QASTINA TEL AVIV HAIFA GAZA SARAFAND JERUSALEM HELWAN CAIRO IKINCI ALEXANDRIA MERSA MATRUH SIDI BARRANI BUQ BUQ SOLLUM'.

The short end opposite the end with the handle is engraved 'FORT CAPUZZO BARDIA TOBRUK DERNA GIOV-BERTA SLONTA TECNIC BARCE BARRAKA BENGHAZI GHEMINES'.

The other longer side is engraved 'LIKE HELL IT'S YOURS' and the following placenames: 'HOGEDABIA [sic] AMIRYA PIRAEUS ATHENS CLYTHARPA LARISSA CAFFISIA DAPHNE ARGOS'. On the same side, underneath the title, 'P.O.W.' are the following placenames: 'T BEACH NAUPITIAS CORINTH SALONIKA BULGARIA MACEDONIA YUGOSLAVIA BELGRADE CROATIA MARBURG'.

The short end with the handle is engraved 'AUSTRIA GLIESDORF POLLAU WALKERSDORF GRAZ KARNTON WOLFSBERG TEICHOF Wekirlsdorf [?] [illegible]hohe NEW YORK HOME 7-7-50'.

The base of the smaller tin is engraved 'Palestine 1940 Egypt Pat Williams PAT WILLIAMS V.X.10556 Libya 1941 GREECE', with an engraved image of his colour patch.

Engraved mess tins belonging to VX10556 Sapper Vane Patrick Sheldon 'Pat' Williams, a member of 2/8 Battalion who became a prisoner of the Germans in Greece in 1941.

Williams enlisted in early 1940 and embarked for overseas service in April that year. While serving in the Middle East, Williams was promoted to lance corporal. He transferred to the Headquarters of the 6th Division's Engineers and embarked for Greece in April 1941.

In Greece, Williams was captured at Nauplia T Beach after being wounded with a bullet in his left wrist, and shrapnel to his right forearm. He also suffered head injuries. The 2/8th Field Company had held the line for 11 hours before being forced to surrender when the Germans threatened to shoot 35 British prisoners and shell the village.

Williams had already engraved his name into the mess tins when they were issued, and when a prisoner of war, he began engraving his history into the larger mess tin using a heavy pocket knife obtained from an Italian prisoner of war. He first carved the map of Australia, then his number and name on the base of the larger tin. As he was moved around he added more place names - along with those where he had served before he was captured.

He was initially interned at Corinth, then Salonika before being transported to Germany and interned in Stalag 18D Marburg and Stalag 18A Wolfsberg. In practical terms he was rarely in these camps and between July 1941 and February 1943 he spent most of his time in small work camps outside the main stalags.

In July 1944 Williams was included in a working party of prisoners on a farm near Stalag 18A. By September he had acquired food cards, civilian clothing, a pistol, maps and a compass in preparation for an escape attempt. Before his escape he carved the names of Bomber White and Buck Buchanan, two friends of Williams who were "lucky devils". One newspaper account said they had been wounded and sent home by hospital ship, another that they had earlier escaped captivity.

After killing two guards, Williams and another prisoner slipped away from their working party and took a train to Munich. Travelling out of Germany, they met a Yugoslav man who escorted them to the partisan headquarters near Fala. The two Australians briefly served with the partisans before being evacuated by air to Italy on 13 October 1944. Williams returned to the Middle East and then home to Australia. He was discharged in July 1945 and was Mentioned in Despatches in September for his escape. He re-enlisted in April 1946 as part of the London Victory March AMF Contingent and was allocated a new service number - VX501779.

Williams had left his mess tins behind with another prisoner, VX4750 Driver Leslie William Henderson when he escaped. Henderson used the tins and carried them with him during the rest of his captivity until he had to abandon them. The sooty, dirty tins were found partly buried in a ditch on 24 April 1945 near the town of Murau, Austria by a young Ukranian man, Bohdan Mrozowskij. A group of prisoners had camped overnight at this location not long before his arrival. Mrozowskij was a refugee who had earlier been imprisoned in a Nazi slave labour camp and was evading the advancing Russians. He used the tins for five years while in a displaced persons camp and he took them with him when he emigrated to America in 1950. After reaching New York, Mr Mrozowskij contacted the Sydney Daily Telegraph to try to locate the owner and a reporter managed to find Mr Williams (going by the surname "Sheldon-Williams" at this time).

After an emotional send off by Mr Mrozowskij and his family and friends, which included drinking a toast from the tins, they were handed to the New York representative of the Daily Telegraph who sent them to Australia. The engraved tins were presented to Mr Williams in July 1950, while he was undergoing treatment at Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital in Melbourne. Coincidentally, Williams had only recently seen Les Henderson for the first time since the war and had asked after his decorated tins, when Henderson told him he had to "dump" them.