Souvenir textile 'Les Halles d'Ypres' : Sergeant G E Watkins, 39 Battalion AIF

White silk textile (probably intended as a cushion cover) with a painted portrayal of the burning of the Cloth Hall of Ypres in 1914. Embroidered in green cotton beneath the painting are the words 'Les Halles d'Ypres' (literally 'the covered markets of Ypres'). The entire scene is surrounded by a decorative border embroidered in cotton and silk ribbon which portrays pink and white flowers and intertwined leaves.

This souvenir was collected by George Edgar Watkins at Ypres, Belgium. Watkins was born in Malvern, England, and later immigrated to Australia. Watkins enlisted for service in the AIF in Melbourne on 10 February 1916 aged 23 years. He embarked with 39 Battalion for the Western Front in May of that year, serving in the scout section of the battalion. He was promoted to the rank of corporal in August 1917, then to sergeant in May 1918. On 4 June 1918, Sergeant Watkins was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for as 'leader of numerous patrols, he has been the means for securing valuable information in No Man's Land'. During the war, Watkins kept an extensive record of his daily routines and nightly patrols in diaries and also detailed information in the form of notebooks, hand-drawn maps, plus original photographs. Watkins also collected a vast array of artifacts from the battlefield during the war including a German Mauser Model G98 Rifle and a German flare pistol. All are held in the Memorial's collections. At the end of the war Watkins returned to Melbourne to return to his pre war occupation as a painter. He later married a girl he met while on leave in England during the war, and together they raised a daughter. George Edgar Watkins passed away in 1967.