WW1 Australian Commonwealth Military Force Enamel Sweetheart Brooch

 

More than 416,000 Australians enlisted during the First World War, with more than 330,000 serving overseas. Many served in more than one theatre. More than 50,000 Australians served at Gallipoli. Some 295,000 Australians served on the Western Front. More than 20,000 Australians served in the Middle East.

 

These little brooches are miniatures of the badges of military regiments, naval units, the Royal Flying Corps and the RAF, generally known as sweetheart brooches because they were often given as romantic keepsakes by members of the armed forces to their wives and girlfriends before they left for the front. One Londoner recalled that they ‘were received as gifts, love tokens or symbols to display that one of your loved ones was “doing their bit”‘ and remembered that ‘almost every female seemed to wear one’. Widely sold in retail and jewellery stores throughout the country and in small shops set up in military camps where last-minute gifts could be purchased before embarkation, families visibly articulated their support for their men as they left for potentially lengthy periods of separation in wartime by wearing brooches that matched the soldiers’ insignia.

 

This will be dispatched via Royal 1st class signed for and dispatched within two working days.