General News
16 August, 2025
VETERANS' VOICES: Sheepskins for soldiers
Many of the first men to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force slept rough, warmed only by their own coats and blankets.
In training camps, while under canvas in winter, pneumonia would take its toll.
After the hard slog of training marches during the day, the cold desert winds of Egypt would chill to the bone.
The European winters of the Great War were reported to be the worst for more than 60 years.
Men died of pneumonia or froze to death in the flooded, muddy trenches, unable to move to restore circulation lest they invite sniper or shell fire.
In the finest Australian tradition, their people at home did not sit back but responded with a practical solution of their own.
Public appeal
On November 20 1914, under the headline ‘Appeal for sheepskins’, the Raymond Terrace Examiner reported:
An appeal for the purpose of providing men of the Australian Expeditionary Forces, and as many as possible the British ‘Tommies’ on active service, with a tanned sheepskin waistcoat has started.
The waistcoats will prove of great value to the troops during the winter in Europe, and a sample garment has met with the approval of the military experts.
It was decided to push ahead with the work of organisation without delay.
The newspaper went on to say that a circular from the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney explained that a committee was buying skins from Sydney wholesale butchers for tanning and making into vests.
The committee was “seeking donations of six shillings to be used pending donations of skins from the country to provide comparative comfort for a soldier at the front and could help save his life”.
By 1916 there 75,510 waistcoats and 61,193 insoles had been sent to soldiers at the front.
At the time it was said “Australia rode on the sheep’s back”.
However, wool and sheepskins were being exported to overseas mills for processing.
Governor Sir Gerald Strickland said, “The movement behind the ingenuity and design of the waistcoat had taken a typically Australian product direct from the producer to the consumer.
“I hope that when the war is over this movement will be the means of establishing a new permanent industry in Australia.”
The ‘digger’s vest’ was a practical gift of caring and community support that saved many lives of the soldiers at the front.
Significantly, the vests also gave birth to a new Australian sheepskin industry which would in time serve Australian servicemen during World War I and World War II and benefit all Australians.
The following letter written by Nurse Stobo of 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Dartford, Kent, England, and published by the Maitland Mercury newspaper on February 17 1917 illustrate these points.
“The weather is chilly here. Some of the boys are on furlough from France. They say the mud is simply awful, up to their waists in places. They, almost all wear sheepskin vests over their tunics and find them very warm, especially as they are unable to have their blankets with them. One boy told me he had not seen a blanket for weeks.”
The book ‘Sheep Skins For Soldiers by ‘A Woman’ also records this initiative:
Although it is summer with our soldiers in Europe now, the warm weather there is comparatively short-lived, and it is therefore high time for us to consider once more the question of warm clothing for the men in the trenches.
Last year we had had no previous experience of preparing for a winter campaign.
An article of wear that has met with very great appreciation is the sheepskin vest.
This is a sleeveless coat made high at the back and cut long enough to cover the vital organs of the body.
It is manufactured from green pelts, with from about one-half to three-quarter inches of wool.
The wool side is turned in, the leather side out, and the whole is fastened down the front with leather straps and buckles.
They have been received with enthusiasm at home, as may be judged by the following extract from the letter of an officer in the Royal Artillery: “The skins waistcoat is quite the best of its kind I have ever seen.”
The odd pieces of the pelts are utilised also, insoles, hand-shields and stretcher bearers’ gloves being made from the scraps, so that nothing is wasted.
It is surely time that such a factory was established and this depends on the response to their appeal for skins; it is hoped that the graziers and pastoralists will realise that it is they alone who can help, by giving and helping, and we of the city have no sheep.
The Red Cross Society, Ambulance Buildings, Ann Street, Brisbane, will be glad to receive donations.
With thanks: Sally Bertram, RSL Military History Library. Contact Sally at sj.bertram@hotmail.com or call 0409 351 940.
