Lapel brooch: Female Relatives Badge with 29th Battalion colour patch : Mrs Phoebe Hood

Sterling silver and blue enamel badge brooch showing voided letters 'AIF' within an blue enamelled oval with the words 'TO WOMEN OF AUSTRALIA/ ISSUED BY THE DEPT. OF DEFENCE'. Beneath is a blue enamelled scroll with the words 'FOR DUTY DONE'. The badge is surmounted by a king's crown. A small recatngular black and tellow brooch representing the colour patch of 29 Battalion, AIF, has been attached to one side of the scroll. The back of the brooch, which has a brooch pin fitting, bears an impressed serial number '10764' as well as impressed manufacturer's details 'WM. McLEAN & Co MELB./ STG.SIL.'

This Female Relatives' Badge was issued to Mrs Phoebe Grace Hood, wife of Edward Duncan Hood, who was killed in action at Flers, on the Somme in France, on 25 October 1916. Hood was born at Carrum, Victoria, in 1891, and was working as a labourer at Mannnerim, near Queenscliff, before joining the AIF. A married man with three young children, he nevertheless enlisted in January 1916, becoming Private 2661, a member of the 5th Reinforcements to 29 Infantry Battalion. He sailed from Australia in April 1916 and joined his unit in France in August of the same year. Only two months later he was killed, probably by shellfire near the ruined town of Gueudecourt, during the preparation for an attack by the 5th Australian Division on the enemy trench system in front of le Transloy. Edward Hood is buried at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, about 4 kilometres south west of the area where he was killed. Mrs Hood added a small sweetheart brooch to the badge, given to her by her husband, which represented the colour patch worn by members of 29 Battalion on their upper uniform sleeves.