Identification Bracelet – Flight Sergeant Sydney James, RFC

Royal Flying Corps (RFC) silver identification bracelet issued to Flight Sergeant Sydney James.  "SEPT. 1915" engraved on reverse.

Australian-born James moved to New Zealand with his family when he was a small child. He enlisted in the RFC on 26 January 1914, and in doing so dropped his actual surname of Pentecost. He learned to fly in 1917 and served on the Western Front and in Egypt, where he contracted tuberculosis. This eventually claimed his life after his return to New Zealand in 1918; he died at his parent's home in Hastings in 1921, aged 29.