Christmas Dinner 1916 menu souvenired by Private Arthur JAMES

Arthur JAMES was born on 12 December 1889 in Tasmania. Enlisting at Blackboy Hill in the 16th Battalion, Service No. 5119 on 7th January 1916, and embarked from Fremantle on HMAT Shropshire on 31 March 1916. Transferred into the 48th Battalion he was dangerously wounded in action on 7 August 1916 in France with a gunshot wound to the upper left arm and sent to No. 1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Harefield Park.
Private Arthur JAMES obtained the menu and kept it as a souvenir of the Christmas spent in No.1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Harefield Park, England.
Harefield Park House was used as the No. 1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital from December 1914 until January 1919. Originally it was estimated that the house would accommodate fifty soldiers under winter conditions and 150 during spring and summer. At the height of its use, it accommodated over 1,000 beds and had a large nursing and ancillary support staff.
He returned to Australia in March 1917, where he married Charlotte Mary (nee WITNISH) in 1917 at Bridgetown having seven children. He died on 17 October 1947 in Katanning whilst on holiday, and was returned and buried in Bridgetown, Western Australia.