Turkish ring : Driver M W Berg, 18 Battalion, AIF

Ring with a face of a horned man, together with an accompanying handwritten note describing the circumstances of its acquisition by Driver Berg.

Ring associated with the service of 1134 Driver Martin Walter Berg. Born at Braidwood, New South Wales, Berg enlisted into the AIF on 9 February 1915 and was assigned to 18 Battalion. He embarked from Sydney on 25 June 1915 on board HMAT Ceramic. He served at Gallipoli between August and to December 1915 arriving in time to take part in the battle at Hill 60. It was during his time at Gallipoli that Berg contributed to the capture of the Turkish prisoner from whom he took this ring. He sent the ring to Australia with a note, 'This is my Turkish ring. what a beaut eh? What do you think of Allah? I got this off a live turk not a dead one. The poor devil was taken prisoner by us.' On 25 March 1916 Berg landed with his battalion at Marseilles, France from Egypt, en route to the Western Front. In May he was hospitalised for two months with laryngitis and bronchitis. On 30 November 1916 Berg transferred to 15 Company, Australian Army Service Corps. On 11 March 1918 he was admitted to hospital with a fractured left tibia from an injury he had received playing football. Berg returned to Australia on board HT Castalia on 13 April 1919 and was discharged 1 August.