lifeasdaddy

There are no atheists in foxholes: A World War Two soldier's Bible.

Here's an interesting pocket Bible.  It was given away to soldiers across the British Empire during  World War Two by the British and Foreign Bible Society. This one to a soldier in the Australian Army.

It cannot be rare, however I am unable to  find any identical in the online catalogues of the usual Australian cultural institutions.  If you know of any similar examples - please let me know.

This one bears the symbol of His Majesty King George VI.  It is 120mm high and 76mm wide.

 

Inside the front cover is a tipped in presentation page plus a stapled Bible Reading hints insert.  The slightly corroded staples have created a slight brown stain. Otherwise the bible is almost unmarked after 70 years:

 

His Majesty's message to his loyal troops is also included.  The message is dated just 2 weeks after the start of World War Two:

 

Interestingly it was printed at the University Press, Oxford:

 

I just checked the Integrated Catalogue of the British Library and cannot find it there either.

Regalia of an I.O.O.F. lodge member

The man I wrote about here was once a member of the I.O.O.F. Talbrager no. 74 lodge in Dubbo, New South Wales.  He was initiated in 1934.

The International Order of Odd Fellows was a fraternal organisation which also provided welfare and insurance such as sick benefits to members.  There was also an associated organisation for women named The Rebekahs.  Here's the wikipedia entry about the North American organisation which gives a good overview of the general structure and flavour of the organisation. 

His ceremonial I.O.O.F. lodge collar looks like this:

 

It is adorned with a flannel flower motif. This flower has a close association with the State of New South Wales. The background is red coloured silk velvet and the flowers are embroidered in silver bullion wire, and the fringe is also of silver bullion.  The edge of the collar is trimmed with  repeating I.O.O.F. and triple link motif in silver thread embroidery.

Here is a close view of the embroidery.

 
 

The rear of the collar is lined with red coloured leather.

 

And it comes complete with a lockable leather carrying case.

 

Some empheral items are also contained in the case including two I.O.O.F. hospital cards:

 

and usefully a copy of the Triple Links magazine for January 1, 1940. 

 

The magazine includes some advertisements for ceremonial collars, one from David Jones department store:

 

and from Hordern Bros. Ltd.:

 

Here's a photograph of some I.O.O.F. lodge members in California wearing their collars.

There do not seem to be many of these types of collars still in existence in Australia, but here's one in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.