Signatures from the Front
The Agnes Hansen WW1 Signature Quilt will be on display for the first time in six years.
This is arguably the most important object in the Williamstown Historical Society’s collection.
As part of a fundraising effort Mrs Agnes Hansen came up with the idea of creating a signature quilt to raise funds for the war effort by charging Victorian residents sixpence to have their name embroidered on a quilt. She then decided to make her quilt ‘different’ by asking her son, Captain Stewart Hansen, who was fighting overseas, to collect the signatures of other service men and women he met and then to post them home to be included in the quilt. When the signatures arrived back in Williamstown, they were carefully embroidered by Mrs Hansen and her friends.
The display will be accompanied by stories about some of the signatures on the quilt and their links to Williamstown and Victoria.