Signed flag carried by C Company 2/29 Battalion, along the Burma-Thailand railway

Printed cotton Union Jack with leatherette reinforced corners on the hoist, each with a pair of strings attached to it. In the centre of the flag is a wool flannel colour patch for 2/29 Battalion. Written around the patch, in purple indelible pencil, is 'CAPT. W.B. BOWRING. VX44362 O.C. C COMPANY 2/29 BATT. 8th. DIV.'. The names of 84 men, nearly all from 2/29 Battalion, but with a few from 2/26 Battalion, are written in the same indelible pencil on three of the four red arms of St George's Cross. All are written by the same hand in the format initials, surname, service number. Some of the white sections of the flag bear signatures of men from 10 Australian General Hospital, 13 Australian General Hospital, 2/9 Field Ambulance, 2/26 Battalion, 2/29 Battalion and 2/30 Battalion. There are the remains of a square of woollen stitches at each corner of the hoist where the flag was attached to a blanket so that it could be hidden from the Japanese.

This flag is said to have been carried by members of C Company, 2/29 Battalion, while they were working on the Burma-Thailand Railway as prisoners of war. It was concealed by being stitched between two pieces of blanket. The names and signatures on the flag are all those of Australian prisoners of war but it cannot be established when the names were written on the flag, or if they were all written at about the same time.

The 'nominal roll' of C Company, in particular, which is written on the Cross of St George, includes the name of a man killed in the fighting in Malaya before the surrender to the Japanese and appears to have been organised so that the names of prisoners who died in captivity are mainly written on one arm of the cross only. The names of those who died are listed below. Unless otherwise stated all were members of 2/29 Battalion: QX21375 Private (Pte) J B Bigby, 2/26 Bn, NX73975 Pte H R Everingham, VX35311 Corporal (Cpl) W J Clarke,VX36027 Pte L G Barry, NX38428 Pte M G Boustead, 2/30 Bn, NX44900 Pte A Cameron, VX66112 Sergeant R W Dorrat, VX45114 Pte R G Forrester,VX65214 Cpl G A Gardiner, QX18586 Pte W A Graham, 2/26 Bn, VX41755 Pte H Griffin, TX5745 Pte C W Gardham, 2/26 Bn, VX34720 Cpl J Haden, QX22382 Pte D P Harstoff, 2/26 Bn.