Embroidered handkerchief : Private E D Hood, 29 Battalion, AIF

Cream silk handkerchief embroidered with two ply pearl cotton embroidery thread. The scalloped edge of the handkerchief is finished with cream buttonhole stitch. The centre of the handkerchief has a cream stem stitch circle within a wreath of pink and white satin stitch flowers with green leaves. Each corner of the handkerchief has a further spray of pink and white flowers with leaves. There is a larger flower in the centre of each spray with a finely worked mesh centre from which the backing fabric has been cut away. There is a pink embroidered butterfly in the centre of each long side.

This souvenir handkerchief was sent home to Australia to his wife, Phoebe, by Edward Duncan Hood before he was killed in action at Flers, on the Somme in France, on 25 October 1916. Hood was born at Carrum, Victoria, in 1891, and was working as a labourer at Mannnerim, near Queenscliff, before joining the AIF. A married man with three young children, he nevertheless enlisted in January 1916, becoming Private 2661, a member of the 5th Reinforcements to 29 Infantry Battalion. He sailed from Australia in April 1916 and joined his unit in France in August of the same year. Only two months later he was killed, probably by shellfire near the ruined town of Gueudecourt, during the preparation for an attack by the 5th Australian Division on the enemy trench system in front of le Transloy. Edward Hood is buried at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, about 4 kilometres south west of the area where he was killed.