Clyde North Salvos has uncovered and returned a long-lost World War II flag that originally belonged to the 2/2nd Field Regiment, and the historic artefact will be displayed at the Shrine of Remembrance next year.
On Friday 21 November, a donation ceremony was held at the store, where the flag was officially handed over to the 2/2nd Field Regiment.
The fragile flag, covered in 28 handwritten signatures believed to be signed by Australian soldiers who served for the 2/2nd Field Regiment during World War II, was discovered by store staff member Kylie Baker.
While routinely sorting through donations, she noticed the flag and immediately recognised it was not a normal flag, an instinct from someone whose parents are RSL members.
Kylie’s parents, Denis Holland and Sue Holland, members of Springvale RSL, helped investigate the origin of the flag.
“I think when you look at the flag itself, you see that it’s full of signatures. 28 people have signed it. You don’t normally see a flag like that, unless it belongs to a group or a battalion,” Denis said.
“Kylie just thought that it must be of some significance. She’s not sure how it actually arrived at the Salvos. It was just donated.
“It’s not something that you would sell either. You couldn’t sell it to anybody. It’s too precious.”
On the bottom edge of the flag, the couple spotted the words ‘2/2 FLD REG”, a reference to the 2/2nd Field Regiment of the Australian Army, an artillery regiment that served in the Middle East and New Guinea during the Second World War.
Sue soon found the recently rebuilt website of the 2/2nd Field Regiment Association, where she found the contact details for its president, Malcolm Fallon.
“It was just a series of coincidences, and the timing of it is just incredible,” Malcolm said.
“They (Denis and Sue) got on our website, which we’ve just spent hundreds and hundreds of hours building, and they found my name and email and contacted me.
“If we hadn’t rebuilt that, they would never have found us.”
He began his own research after the couple sent through some detailed images. He individually examined each signature and soldier number, many beginning with “VX”, indicating enlistment in Victoria. Malcolm cross-referenced the names through the National Archives to confirm their deployment history. His research pointed to the flag being signed in 1940 or 1941, most likely from the Middle East, but he still needs to find out whether the flag was signed going to or from the Middle East.
“It makes it 80 to 85 years old. It’s very fragile. We’ve got to work out now what we’re going to do with it, how we frame it or how we preserve it, so we’re going to get some expert advice on what’s the best thing to do to make sure that it’s preserved forever,” Malcolm said.
Another coincidence is that the regiment had been working for a couple of years with the Shrine of Remembrance to curate a major exhibition in April next year. One of the missing artefacts was an original wartime flag signed by unit members.
“This flag will form part of the original memorabilia to be displayed at the Shrine, which may have ended up in a rubbish bin and never to be seen again,” Malcolm said.
“It is of historical significance not only to us but to Australia.”
Malcolm praised and thanked Salvos for the way they handled and looked after the flag.
“Everything the Salvos did was textbook preserving and looking after it, and we’ll be forever grateful,” he said.
Salvos regional manager Leigh Murphy described the donation as “incredibly rare” and a testament to the diligence of the Clyde North team.
“We presented it to the president of 2/2nd Field Regiment, and they’re actually in the midst of preparing an exhibition for the Shrine of Remembrance in April next year, and the one thing they didn’t have was the original flag from their field regiment. And using the words from them, this is one of the most prized possessions that they have to showcase at the Shrine,” he said.
“That’s really significant in our nation’s history, of military personnel who served overseas in World War II.
“We certainly don’t get this type of donation every day, but the team did the research and made sure it went back to the right hands and where it belongs.
“I think for our community, please continue to come and donate your pre-loved goods at any one of our Salvos stores around the area… Our team will take the right care for those donations and pre-loved goods that you do give to us and ensure that they’re respected.”
Malcolm said they still need to find out who actually held the flag.
“We believe the owner of the flag got to live somewhere in the eastern corridor,” he said.
“We’re sort of at a loss to know any more history, and there are no soldiers alive now; they’ve all passed away, so a little bit of the histories or unknown history is gone with those men, and most probably never be able to be retrieved unless we could find a descendant that the father had told the story.
“That’s why we’d like to find the person who actually owned the flag. We’d love to hear from any family that knows any of the history of it.”
Denis recalled the day of the official donation ceremony.
“We had other people there, but me handing it over to Malcolm brought tears to my eyes and to his eyes because of the significance,” he said.
