Remains of a money belt with badges, 2 Light Horse Regiment, AIF : Quinn's Post, Gallipoli

Two pieces of a leather money belt, both with badges attached. Both pieces are warped and have a coating of dried mud. The top seam of both pieces of the belt has become unstitched, and there are organic remains and thin fragments of paper within.

The larger piece has two studs. Four 'AUSTRALIA' shoulder titles, a '2 LH' shoulder title and two Rising Sun collar badges are attached to it. The uppermost Rising Sun badge has bullet damage on the top of the badge.

The smaller piece has a Rising Sun hat badge, an 'AUSTRALIA' shoulder title and a '2LH' shoulder title.

All the badges are attached to the belt pieces by small split pins, except for the 'LH' badge on the larger piece, which is attached using a piece of wood, possibly from a matchstick. The badges have a coating of dried mud, and some have dried mud embedded in the voids.

Belt and badges relating to 2 Light Horse Regiment (LHR) found near Turkish trenches at Quinn's Post on 10 January 1919 by members of the Australian War Records Section (AWRS). The small party of AWRS staff, led by Lieutenant William Hopkin James, worked on Gallipoli from December 1918 to March 1919, taking photographs and collecting items for the national collection. They believed that this belt was associated with one of the men who took part in a raid on the Turkish trenches at Quinn's Post (or Bomba Sirt [Bomb Spur], as the Turks called it) in May 1915.

After landing at Anzac on 12 May 1915, 2 LHR took over the trenches at Quinn's Post from the 15th Battalion at noon on 13 May. The following afternoon, General Birdwood inspected the post and decided 2 LHR was not numerically strong enough to hold the position. It was decided the 15th Battalion would return to Quinn's Post.

Only C Squadron of 2 LHR remained at Quinn's, as it had been detailed to launch a raid on the enemy trenches that night. They were to fill in the communication trenches, damage the Turkish trenches and return before daylight. As it was to be a surprise attack, no supporting artillery fire was used to bombard the Turks in advance.

Four parties were to take part in the raid, two assaulting parties and two digging parties. Each party was made up of four officers and 60 men. Unfortunately for C Squadron, the 15th Battalion had previously made similar raids, so the Turks were prepared and had placed machine guns on the Chessboard and German Officer's Trench that swept no man's land at Quinn's.

The two assaulting parties had barely mounted the parapet at 1.45 am on 15 May, when they were hit by bombs and rifle fire by the Turks. The machine guns then opened fire. Only four men from the regiment made it to the Turkish trenches. Although the enemy troops retired, the Australians realised it was hopeless to remain and the only officer there, Lieutenant Ogilvy, ordered his men to retire. The unit war diary noted that one officer and 13 men were killed, 11 men missing and 25 men wounded in the raid.

The badges on this money belt include the unit titles which Australian soldiers originally wore on their shoulder straps. The change from metal unit shoulder titles to cloth unit colour patches was ordered while the battalions were training in Egypt in March 1915. It seems that this soldier kept his old shoulder titles on his belt after the unit started wearing patches. His Rising Sun hat badge and two collar badges are also attached to the belt, and five 'AUSTRALIA' shoulder titles (two of which are associated with the unit titles).