Historical information

This field First Aid kit is a mixture of items, some prepared for use in wartime, including World War One and some for use in peace time emergencies. The calico bag, produced by the Red Cross in Kalgoorlie, W.A., has been used by the State Emergency Service and at a later date by a scout group. The name, ‘S. Dempster’ is on the striped calico bag. Samuel Dempster was born in Ireland and was living at Panmure when he enlisted. He was attached to the 6 Ambulance training. He served from 1942-46

Physical description

This is a calico shoulder bag with the shoulder strap adjustable with the use of metal clips. The bag is frayed and rusted and contains 14 items:-eight flat bandages, five safety pins, six small rolled gauze bandages, three navy blue packages of white absorbent gauze, one rolled package bandage,, rubber hose (broken), two small and one large field dressings, two shell dressings, Armed Forces shell dressing (Commonwealth of Australia), dark blue absorbent lint (yellow label), absorbent cotton wool (navy blue wrapper with red label), striped canvas bag, bottle of aqueous solution Acriflavine, two rolled bandages.

Inscriptions & markings

‘S.Dempster VX74418’
‘Red Cross Society Kalgoorlie West Australia’