Next of kin plaque: Gunner Victor Henry Pitfield, 8th Light Trench Mortar Battery, AIF

Bronze next of kin plaque, showing on the obverse, Britannia holding a laurel wreath, the British lion, dolphins, a spray of oak leaves and the words 'HE DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR' around the edge. Beneath the main figures, the British lion defeats the German eagle. The initials 'ECP', for the designer Edward Carter Preston appear above the lion's right forepaw. A raised rectangle above the lion's head bears the name 'VICTOR HENRY PITFIELD'. A checker's number '67' is impressed in front of the lion's left rear paw. The plaque is contained in its cardboard sleeve of issue.

Born in England, Victor Henry Pitfield emigrated to Australia in 1911. He was employed as bread carter in Sydney when he enlisted in the AIF on 4 August 1915. He had previously attempted to enlist but had been rejected on medical grounds. After initial training he was posted a private, service number 3425, to the 11th Reinforcements for 13th Battalion. The unit sailed from Sydney on 13 October, aboard HMAT A17 Port Lincoln.

Pitfield joined his battalion in Egypt in March 1916. A week later he was transferred as a gunner to the 10th Field Artillery Brigade, before transferring again to the 4th Divisional Ammunition Column. He arrived with his unit in France, for service in the Western Front, but transferred again soon afterwards, to the 4th Trench Mortar Brigade. He was wounded on 31 October and was transferred to England to St Anselm's VAD Hospital at Shorncliffe, near Walmer on 8 November, suffering from a severe shrapnel wound to the back and abdominal wall. On 21 December the officer commanding the hospital wrote: He has made and exceedingly good recovery and is now almost convalescent. Please assure his people that the doctors are very much pleased with his recovery and that his progress is excellent. He is an extremely good patient in every way and we shall all be sad when the time comes for him to move on'. Pitfield was discharged from hospital in March 1917 and after convalescence and training joined 4th Division Artillery in France in June.


In March 1918 Pitfield was posted to the 8th Light Trench Mortar Battery. He was severely wounded on 31 September whe he received a compound fracture of the femur and was admitted to the 8th (British) General Hospital at Rouen. The hospital noted: 'He received a transfusion of blood on the 31st September but his condition did not improve, and he died at 4.5 am on the 3rd October'. He was buried in the Bois Guillaume Communal Cemetery Extension. He was 31 years old.

This Memorial plaque was sent to Pitfield's widow, Lily, in September 1921. He had married her shortly before his enlistment in 1915.