Australia Pre WW1 Named Infantry Officers 1897 Pattern Infantry Sword Part 1

A rare personalized 1897 Infantry Officers Sword. EDVII Cypher.

Original wire bound ray skin grip. Voided bowl guard with EDVII cypher. Acid etched straight blade with acid etched EDVII cypher and to one side a personalised cartouche " E.T.J. Kerby / Ballarat". Both the blade and bowl guard with heavy tone. Comes with its all steel nickeled scabbard. This with light pitting and loss of the nickelled finish, particular to one side.

Edwin Thomas John Kerby (12 April 1888 – 5 July 1971) was an Australian politician.

The son of James Macklam Kerby (1861—1944),1 and Margaret Ann Kerby (1856—1941), née Brennan,23 Edwin Thomas John Kerby was born at Ballarat, Victoria on 12 April 1888.4

He married Rosina May Prisk (1888—1980), later Mrs. Oliver Gladstone Longstaff, at Ballarat on 3 May 1911.56789 He married Elizabeth Beatrice Simons Beauchamp (1898—1986) in 1945.

He attended Grenville College, Ballarat, before becoming a mining engineer and electrical contractor.

He served in World War I from 1914 to 1919. During his service he was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, and the Victory Medal.

In 1919, he was selected as the Nationalist candidate for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Ballaarat, and defeated sitting Labor MP Charles McGrath by one vote, the closest result ever recorded for the House of Representatives. McGrath successfully challenged Kerby's election in the courts,14 and a by-election was held in 1920 and won by McGrath. Kerby became a businessman, focusing mainly on aviation, and became prominent among ex-servicemen's causes; he held the leadership of the RSL. He died in 1971.

Throughout his adult life Kerby maintained an interest in amateur radio and held the callsigns VK7EK while resident at Ringarooma, Tasmania (1932 to 1939) and VK3KK while living in Auburn, Melbourne, Victoria (1946 to 1969).

He died at the Macleod Repatriation Sanatorium, in Macleod, Victoria, on 5 July 1971.


Captain
Unit name 8th Battalion, 19th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number 23/25/5
Embarkation details Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A32 Themistocles on 28 July 1916
Rank from Nominal Roll Major
Unit from Nominal Roll 8th Battalion
Promotions
Major


Unit: 8th Battalion
Promotion date: 30 May 1917
Fate Returned to Australia 20 December 1918



Captain
Unit name 8th Battalion, 19th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number 23/25/5
Embarkation details Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A32 Themistocles on 28 July 1916
Rank from Nominal Roll Major
Unit from Nominal Roll 8th Battalion
Promotions
Major
Unit: 8th Battalion
Promotion date: 30 May 1917
Fate Returned to Australia 20 December 1918

Captain
Unit name 5th Battalion, 1st Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number 23/22/2
Embarkation details Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A32 Themistocles on 22 December 1914
Rank from Nominal Roll Major
Unit from Nominal Roll 8th Battalion
Fate Returned to Australia 20 December 1918
Family/military connections Brothers: Major Edwin Thomas John KERBY, 8th Bn, returned to Australia, 20 December 1918; 1364 Sergeant Martin Macklam James KERBY DCM, 3rd Tunnelling Company, killed in action, 27 November 1916;

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front


Edwin Thomas John (Ed) Kerby (Major) was born in Ballarat and was an electrical engineer by trade when he enlisted in the 8th Battalion as a Captain on November 11th 1914 at the age of 26.
His unit embarked from Melbourne on board the Themistocles in December.
He left Alexandria, bound for Gallipoli, on the same transport ship as his brother Norman in early April 1915.
On May 29th 1915 he was wounded in action, suffering a shrapnel wound to his right lung.
He was evacuated to hospital at Alexandria where it was decided he was unfit to resume active service and that he should be sent home for further recuperation.
He returned to Australia in January 1916 on the Star of Victoria.
Six months later he again embarked from Melbourne on the Themistocles, having been declared 'fit for active duty' in March.
In January 1917 he was accidentally wounded while training students in 'bomb throwing', suffering an injury to his left eye.
After discharge from hospital in April he was posted to France and promoted to Major, but the wound to his eye continued to handicap him and he was eventually posted to a training position in England in January 1918.
At the end of 1918, he returned to Australia on board the Orontes, disembarking in Melbourne at the end of January 1919.
His appointment in the AIF was terminated on August 25th 1919.
Edwin was one of five brothers who served in the AIF, with two of them killed in action. Norman, Mack, Roy and Noble are all honoured with trees in the Ballarat Avenue of Honour.

WW2 Service Record
Name KERBY, EDWIN THOMAS JOHN
Service Australian Army
Service Number V354742
Date of Birth 12 Apr 1888
Place of Birth BALLARAT, VIC
Date of Enlistment 03 Jul 1942
Locality on Enlistment ST KILDA, VIC
Place of Enlistment PORT MELBOURNE, VIC
Next of Kin KERBY, E
Date of Discharge 31 Oct 1945
Rank Lieutenant
Posting at Discharge 1 BATTALION VOLUNTEER DEFENCE CORPS
Prisoner of War No
SOURCE DVA Nominal Roll

Name: Mr Edward Thomas John KERBY
Award: The Order of the British Empire - Member (Civil) (Imperial)
Post-Nominal: MBE
Date Granted: 12th of June, 1965
Citation
For service to ex-servicemen.

All sword purchases will require proof of age verification and licence or exemption.

Note: postage will be via private courier at a fixed cost to be added to the total of $100.

Code: 3988