Wooden box of eye instruments from HMAS Perth : Major A R Hazelton, Australian Army Medical Corps

Wooden box with metal hinges and decorative clasp. The top of the box is marked with a broad arrow and the words '23174 PRICE WB/ HMAS PERTH' in pencil. Inside the box the lid is stamped with the maker's details and has slots for two pairs of scissors, each held in place by a swinging catch. The inside of the box itself is divided into two compartments. An open section holds a syringe, three retractors, a cyst remover and four other ophthalmic instruments. The other compartment has a wooden insert for holding three forceps in place and also contains three suture needles secured on carboard, suture thread, a scalpel blade and a small glass vial. Three of the instruments were handmade or modified from broken pieces. The eye cyst remover was made from a piece of a Japanese aircraft and two instruments, one for removing splinters and the other inserting a hole in the eye for drainage, were adapted from broken material.

Eye instrument kit from HMAS Perth obtained from 23174 Telegraphist William Bruce Price, a sailor from the ship and used by NX35134 Major Alan Richard Hazelton of C Company, 2/10 Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps. Hazelton was born in Sydney in November 1915 and enlisted in the Medical Corps on 25 July 1940. He was taken prisoner of war in Singapore in February 1942 and was held in camps along the Burma-Thai railway where he was the Senior Medical Officer for 'D Force' and at Nakom Pathom Base Camp in Thailand. He was made the eye specialist for the camp owing to four months training in ophthalmology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. He returned to Australia after the war.

William Price, who was taken prisoner after the sinking of HMAS Perth, joined the RAN in May 1939 and trained as a telegraphist. Apart from a brief posting to HMAS Canberra, his sea-going service was in the Perth. He survived captivity, and although he initially decided to remain in the navy after his return to Australia in 1945, he received a free discharge at the end of 1946.