Pattern 1908 pack : Sergeant W E Turnley, 1 Field Company Engineers, AIF

Pattern 1908 cotton webbing infantry haversack with straps and brass slides on the upper back, and additional straps threaded through keepers at the botton to allow it to be secured to the rest of the web equipment and for use to attach other items of equipment. The front flap is secured with two straps and slides. The right shoulder strap is marked in black ink '84 TURNLEY' plus another illegible word, while the back of the haversack is marked in large black letters '84 Sgt TURNLEY W.E. 1ST Divl. Fld Engrs. A.I.F.'. Stencilled along the inner edge of flap are the maker's marks 'M.E. CO. 1913'.

This haversack was used by Corporal William Echlin Turnley and was piled up with other packs to form part of the first defensive parapet to be built at Anzac Beach, Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. Born in Plymouth, England in 1891, Turnley of Coraki, New South Wales, was working as a telephone mechanic in Sydney at the time of his enlistment on 20 August 1914. He joined 1 Field Company Engineers in the AIF where he was given the service number 84 and promoted to the rank of lance corporal. He embarked for overseas service at Sydney on HMAT Afric on 18 October 1914. He was among those who landed on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and he remained on the peninsula until he was wounded on 12 July. He was evacuated back to Egypt and promoted corporal on 15 July. On 8 September he was promoted to temporary sergeant, but reverted to corporal on 24 November 1915. He returned to Australia in 1916 and worked as a Shire Clerk in Coraki. He died in 1934 aged 43.