Sweetheart brooch : Sergeant J C A Smith, 15 Battalion, AIF

Places
Accession Number REL/12594
Collection type Heraldry
Object type Badge
Physical description Enamel, Metal
Maker Unknown
Place made Australia
Date made c 1914-1915
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Description

Small metal and enamel sweetheart brooch with the colours of 15 Battalion represented in a brown over blue enamel scroll. A blue enamel boomerang suspended by a single link hangs from the centre of the scroll with the words 'TILL WE MEET AGAIN'. Set into the reverse of the scroll is a metal pin-fitting together with the embossed word 'REGD'.

History / Summary

Born in Tweed Heads on the NSW North Coast in 1895, John Carlisle Alvin Smith 792, a postal assistant, enlisted in the AIF on 18 September 1914. Embarking from Melbourne on HMAT A40 'Ceramic' on 22 December 1914 Smith took part in the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 as a Private in 15 Battalion. Made Corporal on 9 May he was promoted to Sergeant on 29 May 1915 after a bayonet charge at Quinn's Post. Aged 19 and 11 months, Smith was killed by enemy gun-fire on Gallipoli at daybreak on the morning of 8 August 1915 while taking part in one of the assaults on Lone Pine, a strategically important plateau in the southern part of Anzac. Smith has no known grave and is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial. It is presumed that he had this brooch made for his mother before he left Australia.