item details
NameSoldier's shaving mirror
ProductionUnknown; circa 1918
Classificationmirrors, pocket mirrors
Materialssteel, leather
DimensionsOverall: 103mm (width), 143mm (height), 5mm (depth)
Registration NumberGH024278
Credit lineGift of Cathryn Riley, 2014
Overview
Leonard Maxwell Morrison (1897-1974) owned this shaving mirror and it was probably part of his soldier's kit in the First World War.
Prior to this he worked as a clerk in Dunedin before enlisting in 1918. His first known rank was Lance Corporal in A Company, service number 74677. He left from Wellington on the transport ship Remuera on 5 June 1918 withe 38th Reinforcments.
Morrison was poisoned by gas while serving in France in the last months of the war. He survived and went on to take part in the occupation of Germany in 1919 after the Armistice was signed in November 1918.
The shaving mirros is on display at Te Papa in Gallipoli: The scale of our war.