Cross and Rosary Beads : Driver H D Harris, 2/3 Motor Reserve Motor Transport Company

A Catholic rosary of the standard design, consisting of five decades, or sets of ten wooden beads, for the recitation of the Hail Mary (Ave Maria), separated by a single wood and brass bead for the recitation of the Our Father (Paternoster, or Lord's Prayer). Suspended from the end of the beads are a small gilt medallion with a profile portrait of Pope Pius IX on one side and an image of the Virgin Mary on the other; and a crucifix. The crucifix is made from a cross of wood enclosed in an outer casing of plated metal with an integral suspension loop. A cast figure of the crucified Jesus is pinned to the wood with a separate 'INRI' piece pinned above the figure. A small plated rosette is attached to the reverse of the cross.

Rosary beads and a crucifix belonging to NX71462 Driver Hayman Douglas Harris, of 2/3 Motor Reserve Motor Transport Company, AIF. Born on 28 January 1906, Harris enlisted at his home town of Hay, NSW on 19 March 1941, and after training was sent to Singapore, where he was captured by the Japanese. Harris picked up the cross in 1944 while he was a prisoner of war at Tamarkan Camp in Thailand and added it to the rosary beads he had when he was first imprisoned. Driver Harris survived his imprisonment and was discharged from the AIF on 5 February 1946.