Red Cross Emergency Service badge : Miss P A Smith, Australian Red Cross Society

Rectangular brass and blue, white and red enamelled badge. The badge shows a red cross in the centre and the words 'RED CROSS EMERGENCY SERVICE'. The reverse has a pin fastening and bears the makers details, 'Handford BRISBANE', and is impressed with 'I 219'.

This badge was worn by Miss Phyllis Agnes Smith who joined the Australian Red Cross Society in Queensland in May 1939. She transferred to the Nundah branch, in Brisbane in 1942. In 2000 she joined the Red Cross headquarters in Brisbane and was still a member in 2005. From 1939 until 1949, Miss Smith served at Red Cross headquarters and volunteered one day a week at the military hospitals at Greenslopes, Rosemount and Holland Park in Brisbane. She was subsequently awarded a Red Cross Certificate of Service for her contribution during the Second World War. A key area of the Australian Red Cross was the support work carried out by its members in hospitals, rehabilitation and convalescent units, assisting servicemen and women and their dependents. During the war the Red Cross secured the largest membership of any of wartime philanthropic organisations with nearly half a million Australians, mostly women and children, becoming members.