Australian Army Museum of Western Australia > Records

World War 1, Red Necktie of Convalescent Blue Uniform

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Overview

A length of red cotton fabric, fashioned as a necktie and on our example stamped with the broad arrow ordnance marking and the date 1917. This red necktie formed part of the so called Convalescence Blues uniform ensemble worn by Australian wounded in military and convalescent hospitals in Britain during World War One.

Historical information

Made of a flannel and flannelette combination, the convalescent soldier’s outfit and its lounge-jacket counterpart resembled ill-fitting pyjamas. The uniform was designed so that a handful of sizes would fit all. This meant that it fit poorly because soldiers had to ‘flap’ or ‘cuff’ their trouser legs and shirt sleeves.

A standardised hospital uniform served a number of useful military functions. It was a means of establishing and maintaining cleanliness in military hospitals, where soldiers usually arrived in dirty, worn-out and infested uniforms requiring sterilization and disinfection.

The outfit also served to help improve the administrative efficiency of returning soldiers to duty. At convalescent facilities, soldier patients fell into four categories. which were identified by combinations of the convalescent uniform and different-coloured armlets. The ‘worst cases’ wore white armlets. Cases well enough for one to six months of retraining wore pink armlets. Section three, including ranks who required less than one month of retraining, light blue armlets. Finally, section four men, those ‘practically well’ wore convalescent blues with dark blue armlets

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-99-725

Inscriptions and markings

Regulations required that the garment be worn at all times by soldiers of non-officer ‘other ranks’ who were receiving treatment in military hospitals and convalescent facilities.

Officers however were exempted from wearing the ‘Blues’, They were providing instead with a white armband decorated with a red King’s Crown, with a personal clothing allowance, or with pyjamas donated by the public and voluntary-aid agencies.

Service headgear was part of the uniform and was worn when up and about except by patients with verenial diseases who were required to go without hats for ease of identification.

Contextual Information

The Australian Army Museum of WA has in its collection a series of hospital sketches by Vernon Lorimer who served with 5 Field Ambulance. Several depict soldiers wearing the Convalescent Blues uniform. The red tie is displayed with Martin O'Meara's Victoria Cross.

Australian Army Museum of Western Australia

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