Portion of the shoulder of a carillon bell, Cloth Hall, Ypres : Driver E J Lawrence, 5 Division Supply Company, AIF

Fragment of a large bass bronze bell, which in cross section describes an angle which correlates with the shoulder of the bell - that is, the curved area between the head and the vertical wall of the bell. The head section is 36 mm thick and the wall 27 mm thick. Cast into the outer face of the wall is a 60 mm high panel with figures in relief which are dressed in Renaissance clothing and depict a scholar and a clergyman or judge, each holding hands with a skeletal representation of Death holding a scythe. A stylised bush separates two of the Death figures and hides a join in the design, suggesting that this panel is a design which is repeated around the circumference of the bell. The edges of the fragment display shatter damage except for the top and one side which have been cut or ground flat. There is gouge damage to the inside of the piece.

Heavy bronze bell fragment from the Ypres Cloth Hall Carillon. This fragment, from the shoulder of the original bell retains a portion of the original 'danse of death' panel which ran around the circumference. Cast in 1683 and nicknamed 'Andries', the original bell was large and chimed a bass tone. It was one of 49 bells which formed the clock carillon which was added to the thirteenth century Ypres Cloth Hall in 1608. The clock was made by Tossanus Cambron and chimed the half hour and announced the opening and closing of Ypres' medieval city gates. The Cloth Hall at Ypres was almost completely destroyed by German shelling during the First World War and the Andries bell was presumably shattered by an explosion or by falling from the belfry in which it hung. This fragment was recovered and brought back to Australia by 13270 Driver Edgar James Lawrence, of Randwick, NSW, born Hobart, Tasmania April 1897, enlisted 28 September 1916. A motor mechanic by trade, Lawrence was allocated to 2 Auxiliary Mechanical Transport Company and embarked for service in France aboard HMAT Persic (A34) on 22 December 1916, which disembarked at Devonport, UK on 3 March 1917. After a period of training, Lawrence crossed to Belgium on 20 June 1917 where he was transferred to 5 Division Supply Company; and later to 4 Division Supply Company, in France, on 7 November 1917. He ended the war in 4 Australian Mechanical Transport Company, to which he had been transferred on 12 March 1918. It is likely the bell fragment was recovered when Driver Lawrence was attached to 5 Division Supply Company when that Company was stationed in southern Belgium. Lawrence quickly established a reputation for lack of discipline; within 8 days of arriving in France in June he was charged for being in Rouen without a pass and was confined to camp for a week. On 11 September 1917 he was charged with 'being out of bounds in the field without a pass and absent from billet about 22:20' and again confined to camp with extra fatigues for four days. He managed to stay out of trouble until 22 April 1918 when he was caught exceeding the speed limit (a crime described in the War Diary as 'furious driving') in the region of La Hayette and awarded five days field punishment. He next came to the attention of military authorities on 24 June 1918 when he was charged with 'conduct to prejudice of good order and military discipline' when he used WD Lorry 28362 to 'convey the furniture of a civilian inhabitant' and, further, for 'committing an offence against the property of an inhabitant of this country in which he is serving in that he stole a piano the property of Alfred Pecqueux, an inhabitant of France'. The War Diary confirms this occurred at Amiens. Driver Lawrence was found guilty on the first charge and not guilty on the second and forfeited 41 days pay. He completed his military career in England by being absent without leave from 9 March to 5 April 1919 and forfeiting a further 40 days pay. He returned to Australia aboard HT Takara, leaving England on 18 July 1919 and arriving in Sydney on 7 September where he was discharged a month later.