Rosary beads : Private J Mooney, 19 Battalion, AIF

Rosary beads made from small wooden beads linked by a fine silver chain. The rosary begins with a small brass crucifix with the figure of Christ and continues with a series of five beads to join the rosary centre. The first and last beads are made of metal and the middle three are made of white glass. The centre takes the shape of a silver heart with three small holes through which the chain is secured. The heart is engraved with the letters 'JM'. The rosary continues with five sets of ten Ave beads at regular intervals, separated by a wider gap and a metal Pater bead. The Ave beads are used to pray the Hail Mary and the Pater beads to pray the Our Father and Gloria Patri in between each set. Five of the dark wooden beads have been replaced with brown bakelite beads.

Born at Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, John Mooney was working as a chaff cutting contractor in Cootamundra when he enlisted in the AIF on 28 March 1916, aged 26. After basic training in Cootamundra and Goulburn he was posted as a private, service number 2940, to the 7th Reinforcements for the 56th Battalion. He sailed for overseas service from Sydney, aboard HMAT A11 Ascanius, on October 1916.

After training in England Mooney briefly joined the 56th Battalion before being transferred to the 19th Battalion, service number 2940B, on 23 March 1917. During the second battle of Bullecourt, during fighting near Noreuil on 4 May, in which his battalion suffered 359 casualties, Mooney was wounded in his right arm, elbow, both legs and side. Taken to the 6th Field Ambulance at Vaulx he died there the same day. Mooney is buried in the Vaulx Australian Field Ambulance Cemetery.

These rosary beads, which Mooney was carrying at the time of his death, were returned to his widowed mother, Elizabeth, and his brother replaced the beads damaged during the battle.