St. Paul's Sunday School Launceston certificate awarded to Dick Burke

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1914

Overview

St. Paul's Sunday School, Launceston, prize certificate awarded to Dick Burke at Christmas 1914. The certificate is printed on card in red and blue on a cream background. It has two metal eyelets at the top through which a cord could be threaded to hang the certificate.
There is a pale blue print and border depicting flags and floral emblems to the outside of the rectangular area containing the inscriptions, which is slightly to the right of centre.
There is a picture of a red, white and blue Union Jack flag with the words 'God Save the King' on either side of it in blue cursive writing. Below that is the name of the recipient, Dick Burke and details of the prize.
A quote from the bible is written in blue ink, under which is the date and signature of the Rector, J.W. Bethune.

Historical information

It is believed that the recipient of the certificate was Richard Charles Burke, born in Launceston on 1 November 1899. This has been confirmed by Dick's great nephew who said that his grandmother, Myra, attended the same church until 1926, and the family lived just around the corner.

Richard Charles Burke was a single engineer, aged 18, when he enlisted on 19 March 1917 as a Gunner with the Field Artillery Brigade, Reinforcement 33 - service number 39137.
He embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board SS Indarra on 26 November 1917 and served in France, where has was gassed at Le Cateau. He died in 3rd Australian Army Hospital, Dartford, England, on 1 March 1919, and is buried at the Brookwood Military Cemetery (Plot IV, Row F, Grave No. 2), Surrey, England.

This certificate of one of several held in the collection where the recipient has foregone a monetary award or trophy and instead donated the equivalent value to a war fund, in this case the Belgian Relief Fund.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-119-RoW00606

Item type

Certificates

Collectibles

Ephemera

Themes

Social History
War and Conflict
War and Conflict > World War 1

Material

Card

Ink