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Overview
A handmade memorial
The maker of this doll, Dorothy Broad was engaged to Captain Thomas Wyville Leonard Rutherfurd (Service Number 6/718), of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (13th Reinforcements). Wyville, as he was known to friends and family, saw action in Gallipoli and France in the First World War.
In early 1918, Wyville went with a unit of experienced soldiers to Persia (Iran). While in Kasvin, Northern Iran, in October 1918, he died from disease aggravated by military service, which may been influenza. He was later re-buried in the British Military Cemetery in Tehran.
Dorothy made a small woollen doll, complete with knitted khaki cap, breast pockets and epaulettes. According to a family story, Dorothy made the woollen doll to stand in for her sweetheart while he was away. The 'woollen 'Wyville' is embellished with the same unit cap badge as Wyville (the 13th Reinforcements), two military brass buttons and also wears a replica paper wristwatch.
Dorothy kept the doll as part of her collection of her fiance's returned effects, adding to her personal memorials to Wyville's memory. Dorothy lived to 1976, but never married.