Dignity for Australian digger hat
Honouring the Anzac spirit, the Wellsford Hospice shop has given an Australian digger hat a more dignified future at the Wellsford RSA.
Likely from World War I the hat turned up in a box of donated goods last week. Shop manager Gaye Ward decided the hat deserved some respect and presented it to Wellsford RSA president Terry Blakemore.
It would probably have ended up in the bin eventually and be lost for ever, Wellsford RSA president Terry Blakemore said. It will now join the small collection of wartime memorabilia at the RSA.
Gaye got an Australian poppy in return along with a purple poppy badge representing the animals that have died during conflict.
There was a shortage of New Zealand poppies a few years ago and some came from Australia, he said. The club has a couple of boxes of these poppies and now each year the womens division at the club twine New Zealand and Australian poppies together in a spray and put them on around 200 war time graves in the area on ANZAC day.
Also known as a Hat Khaki Fur Felt, or slouch hat - named as one side was pinned up while the other remained down - digger hats began with the Victorian Mounted Rifles in 1885 and became standard issue for the Australian forces in 1903.