Military Medal ribbon set into an envelope : Sergeant F A Butterworth, 30 Battalion, AIF

Small section cut from an envelope bearing a piece of Military Medal ribbon slotted into a bar cut at the top of the paper. The envelope is inscribed in pencil '1915 [sic] This is the actual piece of ribbon presented to me by General Plumer at the official Presentation last October. The medals are not presented until "Apres la Guerre"'. Accompanying the envelope and ribbon is a cut down portrait photograph of Butterworth as a lieutenant, taken in 1917, shortly before he qualified as a pilot.

Frank Alexander Butterworth was born at Hay, NSW, in 1895. After completing his schooling he trained and worked as a carpenter. He also served with his local militia unit, 25 Australian Infantry Battalion. He enlisted for service in the First World War on 5 August 1915, at the age of 20, and was posted as a sergeant to D Company of the original draft of 30 Battalion AIF with the service number 1249. He was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry at Petillon, near Fromelles, France, in July 1916.

In 1917 Butterworth transferred to the Australian Flying Corps, where he was commissioned and trained as a pilot before being posted to 4 Squadron. He was killed in action a month before the war's end, in October 1918.

His brother, Rupert, had been killed at Polygon Wood in 1917. Frank Butterworth was the first pilot that the town of Hay had produced. Almost every eligible man enlisted for war service from Hay and its surrounding district, a total of 633 men. Frank and his brother were among 103 soldiers who did not return.

Frank Butterworth sent this piece of ribbon, note and photograph home to his parents in 1917. He mistakenly inscribed the date '1915' at the top of the piece of envelope. The award of Military Medal was first instituted in 1916, the year in which Butterworth received his decoration.