Hand knitted vest : Private T C Birch, 6 Division Australian Army Service Corps, AIF

Hand knitted V neck vest, knitted from goats' wool in an alternate weave pattern of stocking stitch and reverse stocking stitch, with a plaited rib bottom hem.

Associated with the service of NX2911 Private Thomas Charles Birch, who was born on 21 January 1917 in Sydney, NSW. Birch enlisted in the AIF on 23 October 1939, and served in the middle east. In June 1941, he was captured on Crete by Austrian Alpine troops and was interned at Skines prisoner of war camp on the island. A month later he escaped from the camp and found refuge among the Cretans until November, when he was able to return to Egypt. During his time in Crete, Birch was befriended by a family from the village of Mescalas, and one member of the family, a girl, knitted this woollen vest for him. She washed and spun the wool, which was shorn from one of her father’s goats, before dying it with an extract of pomegranate skin. The girl’s father also gave Birch a small knife with a leather scabbard (RELAWM31976) as a souvenir of his stay. Birch was discharged from Headquarters 1 Australian Division on 4 November 1944.