Title Peace of 1919 medalet issued to Australian schoolchildren Object type Medalet Place made Australia: Victoria, Melbourne Date made 1919 Summary Designed by C Douglas Richardson, 'The Peace of 1919' medalet was issued by the Defence Department to school children throughout Australia to commemorate the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty in 1919. The medals were originally suspended from a narrow piece of red, white and blue striped cotton ribbon. This medalet is associated with one of the children of Lance Corporal Giles Daniel, 1st AIF. Born in Ballarat, western Victoria on 16 December 1870, Giles Felix Daniel moved to Oakleigh, Victoria aged 15. A member of the Victorian permanent forces, he served as a corporal (regimental number 8) with the First Victorian Mounted Infantry Company, part of the first Victorian Contingent to the war in South Africa in 1899. This unit was one of the first Australian formations to see action during the Boer War. It was largely drawn from serving members of the Victorian forces. Demoted to private following a Court Martial on 19 November 1900, Daniel returned to Australia in December of the same year. During the First World War, he was again one of the first to enlist, joining the AIF on 19 August 1914, and becoming Lance Corporal number 32 with the First Divisional Signals Company. He served with this unit during the Gallipoli campaign and until his return to Australia on 11 April 1916. Silver-plated brass Circular medalet with a plain edge and integral suspension loop. The obverse features a symbolic female figure of Peace, holding a sword and standing on a plinth marked 'PEACE 1919'. Behind her flies a dove, and at her left and right feet are two figures freed from their shackles. The reverse features a central panel surrounded by laurel leaves, surmounted by the King's Crown with the word 'VICTORY' over the rays of the rising sun. A sailor and a digger stand at ease on either side of the panel on which is cast 'THE / TRIUMPH / OF / LIBERTY / AND / JUSTICE'. Below the leaves is a very small panel with the words 'THE PEACE OF 1919' and the manufacturer's name.peace medal 1919

During WW1 Australia sent 39,348 Walers overseas to the AIF. Many Light Horsemen enlisted with their horses with a government promise that they would be able to bring their horses home with them. On the outbreak of peace, costs became important and it was deemed too costly to have horses repatriated to Australia - except for one horse, "Sandy", owned by General W T Bridges who died at Gallipoli in 1915 Quarantine was offered as a reason for not permitting the walers to return to Australia. However, the horses would have had a long sea voyage, giving time for problems to emerge. Many of the fit horses were sold to the Indian ArmyFramed print of poem "The Horses Stay behind". In days to come we'll wander west and cross the range again; We'll hear the bush birds singing in the green trees after rain; We'll canter through the Mitchell grass and breast the bracing wind: But we'll have other horses. Our chargers stay behind. Around the fire at night we'll yarn about old Sinai; We'll fight our battles o'er again; and as the days go by There'll be old mates to greet us. The bush girls will be kind. Still our thoughts will often wander to the horses left. I don't think I could stand the thought of my old fancy hack Just crawling round old Cairo with a Gyppo on his back. Perhaps some English tourist out in Palestine may find My broken-hearted waler with a wooden plough behind. No; I'd better shoot him and tell a little lie: "He floundered in a wombat hole and then lay down to die" May be I'll be court-martialled; but I'm damned if I'm inclined To go back to Australia and leave my horse behind. Trooper Bluegum