Summary

Australian Comforts Fund gift diary. Bound in red cloth. Unused. Dated 1919.

Description of Content

AUSTRALIAN COMFORTS FUND GIFT DIARY. BOUND IN RED CLOTH. UNUSED. 1919.

Physical Description

Red cover with silver embossed writing and the symbol of the Australian Comforts Fund (A.C.F.) also a silver circle with a red star in the middle. Pencil insert on the left hand side with pencil enclosed. (Pencil has a copper coloured end with the letter E in a shield engraved on it). Back cover has embossed in silver the Australian Commonwealth Military Forces rising sun. Inside cover has decorations awards and back inside cover has a map of the Great War western front. The diary contains 'useful information for Australian Soldiers'. Contents: foreword, military definitions, what the bugle says, heading for reports, rifles used by fighting powers, some useful knots.

Significance

The Australian Comforts Fund (ACF) was first formed on 24th August 1916 from a number of State based organisations that had been individually formed at the beginning of the First World War to send comfort to the troops. The ACF raised money through various activities to buy and make items and food that could be sent to the troops. With the close of the war, the ACF officially ceased to exist on 16th April 1920, only to be revived in 1939 with the outbreak of the Second World War. They provided embarkation kits to troops containing items such as soap, clothes, tobacco, razors, and barley sugar. The AFC officially closed on 27th June 1946.
No provenance about this item was collected when the artefact was received, so we do not know who owned this diary and why it was not used in 1919.

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