Set of wooden camel figurines: Lance Sergeant Laurence Le Get, 2/23 Battalion.

A set of four carved wooden figurines - a bearded man riding a donkey (carved as one figure), leading a line of three laden camels in ascending height, originally chained together. The three camels have a nail attached to the upper throat to which a length of chain is (or was) attached. In addition, each camel has twine ropes attached to small nails to represent the roping together of each load, carved integrally with each camel. The carving is naive.

Lawrence Le Get and Elsa Gertrude Cummins were married in Victoria in 1932 where he was a bank teller. Le Get enlisted with the Second AIF in June 1940, and served with 2/23 Battalion in the Middle East from May 1941, but an eye examination revealed he had poor eyesight and he was withdrawn from frontline service. A month later he was detached for duty with the AIF (Middle East) Small Arms School for four weeks; after qualifying, he was detached to the AIF (ME) Infantry School in late August, where he was made acting staff sergeant as an instructor. He remained with that unit until the division returned to Australia in April 1942.

In June, he was made an acting Warrant Officer Class 11 and in January 1943 was detached to the South Australian Line of Communications (LoC) Area where he served with the Officer’s Cadet Training Unit. He served there for 11 months before returning to the Victorian LoC Area at Seymour in May 1944. He was confirmed in the rank of warrant officer in November 1944. He served with this unit until war’s end and was discharged in September 1945.

This set of wooden figurines was purchased (possibly in Palestine) by Le Get to share between his three children, Peter (born in 1934) Heather (born in 1936) and the youngest, Garry, born in 1940.