Pair of saddle wallets

Pair of standard issue Other Ranks brown leather expanding saddle wallets for attachment to the pommel of the Universal Pattern 1912 steel arch saddle. Each wallet is secured by a long leather strap with a split head and two brass buckles. The wallets are joined together by a broad leather band, which carries in the centre a short leather strap and brass buckle which attaches them to the front arch of the saddle. The wallets have shaped covering flaps secured by brass studs. Both are stamped 'CGHF' over a broad arrow.

Standard issue saddle wallets used by British and Australian mounted, artillery and transport units from 1912 until 1941. The wallets are part of a set of saddlery issued to the Australian War Memorial by the Commonwealth Government Harness Factory in the late 1930s for display on the mounted hide of an Australian bred British army remount, which had been prepared in London for display in the Memorial, then being constructed in Canberra. The building and exhibition areas were opened on 11 November 1941.

Saddle wallets might hold a variety of small personal items required by a rider, however, the contents were often restricted in an effort to reduce the weight carried by the horse during active service. For example, after field trials in Palestine in August 1917, the 12th Light Horse Regiment directed its troopers to carry in their wallets an iron ration (tinned bully beef, four hard tack biscuits, a small packet each of tea, sugar and salt, and sometimes two dried cubes of beef extract which could be reconstituted as beef tea), a pair of socks, a small towel of piece of towelling, soap and a shaving kit.

Officer's saddle wallets differed slightly from those issued to other ranks. The leather was sometimes of a finer quality, the covering flaps were lined with waterproof fabric, and there were internal fittings to hold a revolver and clip of ammunition.