American Ambulance Corps button : Lieutenant G Clune

Brass button for American Ambulance Corps service dress tunic. The button has a Greek cross, indicating the Red Cross, in raised detail in the centre of the button. On the reverse of the button is an aluminium backing plate pressed over a brass lug. Impressed on the backing plate is the number '21' within a square and other markings which are illegible.

Associated with the service of 585 Private George Clune who was born in Cumberland, Sydney, NSW in 1889. Clune enlisted on 12 August 1914 into the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (ANMEF), bound for German New Guinea and the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago. He was posted to G Company of the 1st (Tropical) Battalion and was allocated the service number 585 and rank of private. Clune embarked with the ANMEF from Cockatoo Island aboard HMAT Berrima on 18 August. The force landed at Palm Island for a period of further training and preparations.

The ANMEF landed at New Britain in September - the initial force, mainly naval personnel, landing at Kabakaul at dawn on 11 September. Clune went ashore a day later with the main force at Herbertshohe. The German forces surrendered on 13 September and the Union Jack was raised over Rabaul the same day.

Clune returned to Australia with the first contingent in late February. He was discharged on 4 March 1915. He was rejected for service with the AIF and later, the Canadian Armed Forces. He volunteered to join the American Ambulance Corps in 1916 and was accepted. This unit was made up of approximately 600 volunteers who paid for their own passage to France and provided their own uniforms and equipment. The corps began its work under the joint auspices of the British Red Cross and St John Ambulance.

The corps operated four hundred cars from their two hospitals which were at Neuilly-sur-Seine and Juilly-sur-Marne. He was stationed at the Corps Headquarters in Paris and was promoted to lieutenant for his work in the field. He returned to Australia in early 1917. In 1942 he served with the Naval Auxiliary Patrol in Australia.