Patriotic badge : Sister D S White, Australian Army Nursing Service

A gilt metal and enamel patriotic badge. The badge has a ring of blue enamel around the rim and a bar across the middle. Gold lettering around the edge reads `BETTER DIE FIGHTING THAN LIVE DISHONORED (sic)'. The bar across the middle reads `OUR EMPIRES MOTTO'. In the top half of the badge, above the bar, is an embossed rising sun crest with a red enamel crown and scroll with `AUSTRALIA', and flanked by a kangaroo and an emu. In the lower half is a red enamel five petalled rose of England, surrounded by embossed thistles, shamrocks, an ostrich, an elephant, and a beaver. These flora and fauna emblems represent the United Kingdom and the four dominions. Impressed on the reverse, below the brass pin-fitting, is 'GILT' .

This badge is associated with Sister Dorothy Sevilla White, Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). Born in 1892, Dorothy Sevilla White enlisted as a Staff Nurse with the AANS on 12 July 1917. Embarking for overseas service on HMAT Wiltshire on 30 August 1917, she served in Alexandria and Salonika with the Australian Army Medical Corps Reinforcements. Promoted Sister on 30 August 1919, White returned to Australia on RMS Osterley on 6 November 1919. Her appointment in the AIF was terminated on 15 April 1920.