Princess Royal Fortress Military Museum > Records

16th Australian Infantry Battalion Sergeants’ Mess Xmas Dinner Menu

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George DALZEILL

1916

Overview

16th Australian Infantry Battalion Sergeants’ Mess Xmas Dinner Menu, single page of cream coloured paper with menu typed in purple ink, and numerous signatures of attendees, including the signature of the soldier who souvenired the item, G C DALZEILL, situated at the bottom of the page.

Historical information

George DALZEILL joined the 16th Battalion at Mudros on Lemnos Island where they were resting and rebuilding before they returned to Gallipoli on 31 October 1915. George was appointed Lance Corporal a week later in the field. Within a month he was in need of medical help and evacuated to Egypt suffering with diarrhea. He was promoted to Corporal in March 1916.
On 9 Aug 1916 the 16th Battalion moved into the front lines at Poziéres and at midnight attacked and took possession of Circular Trench mid-way between Poziéres and Mouquet Farm. The German reaction to losing this strategic ground was to carry out an extremely intense artillery bombardment of the area. George was recorded as wounded with shell shock on 10 August 1916, but was only treated for a few days in the 7th Australian Field Ambulance.
He was wounded in action again on 11 April 1917 during the 1st Bullecourt battle, seemingly quite minor in nature as he re-joined the battalion a week later. George was promoted Temporary Sergeant on 6 June 1917 and was sent to England to for a bombing course. He qualified as an Instructor and didn’t return to his battalion in France until 11 April 1918.
He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for displaying gallantry during the late 1918 as a patrol leader in gathering information and also leading his men to their objectives.
George DALZEILL returned to Australia on the 28 February 1919.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-12-2024.15.2

Item type

Menus

Themes

Defence > Army
War and Conflict > World War 1

Material

Printing Paper

Width

205 mm

Height or length

330 mm

Weight

2 g

Inscriptions and markings

“16th Australian Infantry Battalion Sergeants’ Mess Xmas Dinner – Florennes, Belgium, 29th Decr. 1916.”
40 signatures of attendees and signed by G C DALZEILL at bottom.

Contextual Information

The Xmas Dinner for the 16th Battalion Sergeants held on the 29 December 1918 in Florennes, Belgium. It contains signatures of all men who attended and holds insight into the men who endured the war and their celebration during the Christmas season. It has high research potential as most of the men listed received awards for gallantry.

Keywords

WWI

16th Australian Infantry Battalion, 1st Australian Imperial Force

Christmas

BELGIUM

Place made

Florennes, Belgium

Year

1916

Primary significance criteria

Artistic or aesthetic significance

Historic significance