Souvenir ring Fleurbaix : Corporal Hubert Hume Corney, 24 Battalion, AIF

Aluminium ring with a square front with rounded edges. '1914 - FLEURBAIS - 1916' is engraved diagonally across the face.

Souvenir finger ring associated with the service of Hubert Hume Corney, born at Wilcannia, New South Wales, the son of Walter Thomas and Rebecca Louisa Corney. He was a 21 year old clerk when he enlisted in Melbourne as a private, with the service number 1764, on 28 May 1915. Corney embarked from Melbourne for overseas service on 16 July 1915 with the 2nd Reinforcements to 24 Battalion, AIF.

His battalion arrived at Gallipoli in late September 1915. He evacuated from Gallipoli to Alexandria, with gunshot wounds to the left leg on 18 December. In March his battalion left Egypt for France, arriving at Marseilles on 26 March 1916. On 13 August he was appointed lance corporal. For his devotion to duty as a stretcher bearer at Pozieres on 26 August 1916 he was awarded the Military Medal. On 21 April 1917 Corney was promoted to corporal. He transferred to 21 Battalion in May and was promoted to second lieutenant, then on 12 September to lieutenant.

He was killed by a shell at Passchendaele on 9 October 1917. Corney was initially reported missing in action but after a court of inquiry in February 1918 presumed that he had been killed in action. His remains were not located until 1920, near St Julien, a village north east of Ypres in Belgium. His body was identified by his pay book, which was still in his pocket. After the discovery he was moved to the Passchendaele New British Cemetery.

This ring was probably posted home to his family as a souvenir before he died as it is not mentioned in the list of his effects sent to his mother after his death. A cottage industry developed in the trenches during the war, making souvenir aluminium rings. The rings rings were made from melted down fuses from German shells, or from melted down aluminium mess kits and canteens. Collecting the fuses from unexploded ‘duds’ could often be dangerous and many men were wounded attempting to salvage this material. The aluminium would be melted, then roughly cast and filed down before being engraved or have an item, such as the front of a button, attached to the face.