7 Field Ambulance Flag

The 7th Field Ambulance was the Field Ambulance Company that served the 7th Brigade of the 2nd Division which comprised the 25th (Qld) 26th (Qld / Tas) 27th (SA) and 28th (WA) Battalions. The Battalions' reinforcement drafts often provided personnel for the Field Ambulance so numbers of Western Australians from the 28th Battalion served in the 7th Field Ambulance. The 2nd Division was formed in Egypt and deployed to Gallipoli late in the campaign (Aug - Sept 1915). The 7th Brigade landed at Gallipoli on 13 September 1915 and the 7th Field Ambulance served throughout the rest of that campaign and followed its parent Brigade to France and Belgium from 1916. Oral tradition relates that this flag first flew in Gallipoli and then accompanied the unit throughout the remainder of the war.
In 1940 , the unit association travelled from South Australia to pass the flag to the care of 2/7th Field Ambulance when it was formed in Northam. A condition of the transfer was that the flag accompany the unit on campaign and not be retained in safekeeping.
The 2/7th Field Ambulance was formed at Northam in June 1940 and arrived in the Middle East in September as part of the 6th Australian Infantry Division. In November they moved with the Division moved into the Western Desert, A Company 2/7th Australian Field Ambulance were in support at the assault on Baria in January 1941. The whole unit participated in the assault on Tobruk before moving to Barce where they operated a hospital. In March 1941 they returned to Egypt to prepare for the move to Greece,
In Greece they supported the 19th Australian Infantry Brigade Group. The unit was forced back by the end of April 1942 and evacuated before being deposited on Crete.. 'B' Company at Retimo was cut off and surrendered, but most of the rest of the unit were evacuated to Egypt from the beaches at Sphakia in late May. Corporal Peter McRostie had carried the flag, wrapped around his body over the mountains to the evacuation point and passed it to one of the few members who were evacuated.

In June 1941 the remnants of the unit reassembled in Palestine where they rebuilt the unit before returning to Australia in early 1942. The unit served in New Guinea from November 1944 to March 1945 until relieved by the 2/1st Australian Field Ambulance. The flag, recovered from Crete remained with the unit throughout these campaigns. Post War, the flag was transferred to the care of 7 Field Ambulance a CMF unit before being donated to the Army Museum in 2008.