Leather wallet for surgical instruments : Captain A G Butler, 9 Battalion AIF

Stained and discoloured tan leather wallet with drawstring top. The wallet is a narrow bag, approximately 75mm wide, (the extra width is caused by the leather drawstrings) open at one end. Eight holes are spaced evenly around the opening, through which are threaded a pair of leather thongs, which serve as a drawstring. On the side of the wallet, handwritten in black ink, are the words 'Capt Butler AAMC IX Inf Bn H.Q. III Bde'.

This wallet, for the storage of surgical instruments, was used during the landing at Gallipoli by Captain (later Colonel, Australian Army Medical Corps) Arthur Graham 'Gertie' Butler, medical officer of 9 Battalion. He apparently lost the wallet after giving it to a wounded man to hold, and did not see it again until 1918, when it was returned to him from the Kit Store. The wallet, originally containing a small set of surgical instruments was presented to him by a leading Brisbane medical officer, Dr Gibson. Gibson presented identical wallets to each of the regimental medical officers appointed to the original field units of the 1st Division, AIF.

Butler was among the first men ashore at Anzac, and established his aid-post between the 400 Plateau and Bolton's Ridge. His bravery and devotion led to the award of the Distinguished Service Order, the only Australian medical officer so recognised during the Gallipoli campaign. Later Deputy Assistant Director of Medical Services (DADMS) to I Anzac Corps and commander of 3 Field Ambulance and 3 Australian General Hospital, Butler also helped with the collation of AIF medical records. After the war he was appointed to write the comprehensive three volume 'Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services 1914-18', a task which occupied him for nearly twenty years. He died in Canberra in 1949.