c. 1942. Portrait of a young woman, probably a Ukranian named Maria, who met and befriended ...

c. 1942. Portrait of a young woman, probably a Ukranian named Maria, who met and befriended Private (Pte) Lawrence Phillip Saywell, 17th Brigade Company, Australian Army Service Corps while he was being held Prisoner of War. In January 1943, Pte Saywell, 26403 Pte Sydney O. C. (Mac) Kerkham of the New Zealand Army and two Russian soldiers escaped from Kommando E7010 (a prison camp in Bohemia) during a route march. They were sheltered by local villagers and in return offered to assist the Czech partisans in their sabotage operations. Pte Saywell was murdered - shot in the head by a German SS Patrol on 8 May 1945 (VE Day), he was the last Australian killed in Europe. He was the son of Mrs Gertrude Saywell of Double Bay, NSW. Pte Saywell is buried in the Evangelical Cemetery in Miretin, Czechoslovakia. Five months after his death, a memorial was erected in his honour by the "grateful inhabitants of the village of Miretin". In November 1945, the President of the Czechoslovak Republic awarded Pte Saywell the Czechoslovak Military Cross for his "brave and eminent services to our State in the battle for liberation".