Staff at the Australian War Memorial had to hand-make a mannequin large enough to display the combat uniform of Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith which was installed on Tuesday.
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At 200cm tall, the former SAS soldier makes for an imposing model, towering over the entrance to the Hall of Valour from a display cabinet.
“Everything but the boots” were what Corporal Roberts-Smith was wearing when he exposed his own position to draw fire away from his comrades then stormed two enemy machine-gun posts.
It’s the only bona fide uniform worn during the actual feat for which the Victoria Cross was awarded on display at the Memorial, and only the second in its possession.
The first belonged to Sergeant Stanley McDougall, who was awarded a Victoria Cross for his role in the battle of Dernancourt in France in 1918, but Sergeant McDougall’s uniform is now too fragile for permanent display.
While Corporal Roberts-Smith's uniform has been laundered and undergone a freezer treatment to ensure no pests are in it, the boots being worn by the mannequin on display are merely props; and ill-fitting ones at that.
“They were the largest-off the shelf boots we could get, he actually wears size-16,” textile conservator Sarah Clayton said of the unworn army-issue size-13 boots.
Observers of military history note that Corporal Roberts-Smith was actually wearing everyday sneakers with his uniform at the time of the battle.
But other items, including his helmet, gloves, ear muffs and watch protector, are legitimate, and displayed alongside items of Australia’s two other VC recipients from the Afghanistan conflict.
A seal pup utility knife and a personal Global Positioning System (GPS) carried by Corporal Daniel Keighran, during the action for which he was awarded his Victoria Cross is also on display, with a video artwork by the Memorial’s official war artist, Shaun Gladwell; Portrait of Mark Donaldson VC, running next to the display cabinet.
“These are very important personal items now, but imagine how our nation will increasingly feel about these and relate to them with the passage of years and the decades,” Dr. Brendan Nelson, the Australian War Memorial Director said.
“We know the immense reverence we have now for the personal items of our soldiers that were given to use during and subsequently after the First World War.”
