Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Bat-shaped club with rings carved around handle; leather strap laced through bat,; inscription reads "Arrived Oct 17, 1917 / Percy H Waite / 103 Ambulance Co / 26th Div Am Ex Forces USA / Liffol-le-Grand Vosges / France" NOTE: has two wire mounts used for exhibition.

Percy Waite (ca. 1892-1963) served in a Yankee Division ambulance company during World War I. The date on this French-made souvenir bat or truncheon marked his arrival. Percy’s war service, long remembered by his family, took an unusual shape. He volunteered to participate in a three-month-long experiment investigating a painful, though rarely fatal, illness called trench fever. Results published in 1918 identified lice as the disease’s carrier and recorded Waite’s involvement in the medical experiment.