Sabretache : Colonel J A K Mackay, 1st Australian Horse

Officer's black patent leather sabretache worn by the 1st Australian Horse. The front flap is made of a stiff highly polished black patent leather. The back of the front flap is lined with a fine horizontally lined calendared black morocco leather. A gussetted black morocco leather pouch with flap are glued to the back of the front flap. The pouch flap is shaped with a short tongue with two tear-shaped holes reinforced with stitching to fit over a brass stud to secure it closed. A strip of leather is sewn in the lower third of the pouch into three so that the free end of the closing billet can be threaded through it after being secured over the brass stud located towards the lower edge of the pouch. The inside of the pouch and its flap are lined with a green morocco leather. The gilt badge of the 1st Australian Horse is fastened in the centre of the front flap. It depicts a kangaroo and emu supporting a shield bearing a square cross with five stars which represent the Southern Cross within a wreath of waratahs. Superimposed on the shield are a crossed carbine and sword with a boomerang and the motto 'FOR HEARTHS AND HOMES'. Above the shield is a scroll bearing the Regiment’s title 'AUSTRALIAN HORSE'. Behind and above the scroll is a single waratah flower with the numeral ‘1’ superimposed on it. Three brass D-rings are secured to the top edge through leather tabs. There are three short black patent leather straps with brass wire single buckles and brass studs secured through the D-rings. The two outer slings are buckled to their respective straps. The centre sling is missing. The slings are 23 inches long and 6/8 inches wide. At the belt end there is a brass stud with a tear-shaped hole to secure the sling into a loop around the belt fittings.

This sabretache was worn by Colonel (later Lieutenant Colonel) James (Jack) Alexander Kenneth Mackay (1859 - 1935) who raised the 1st Australian Horse in New South Wales in 1897 as a partially-paid volunteer cavalry unit. It consisted of four squadrons, each of them with around one hundred men. During the Boer War a composite squadron from the regiment was sent to the South African War but as Mackay was too senior in rank to accompany it, he was given command of the New South Wales Imperial Bushmen's Contingent which sailed from Sydney in April 1900.