Khaki service cap with sun flap and bullet holes : Sergeant N T Wilson, 1 Light Horse Regiment, AIF

Khaki coloured British issue khaki service cap, complete with cotton sun flap. A leather hand band and two small metal clips are attached to the front. There are two bullet holes in the crown of the cap marked 'May 16th 1915' and 'August 7th 1915'.

This soft service cap is reputed to have been worn by 446 Sergeant Neville Templeton Wilson (1st Light Horse Regiment) at Gallipoli when he was struck by a bullet in his head on 7 August 1915. However, his service record does not record such an injury and indicates he was not wounded at Gallipoli. Wilson, a resident of Inverell and a station overseer when he enlisted at Young, NSW on 22 August 1914, was assigned to the 1st Light Horse Regiment on 22 August. After embarkation and a bout of disease, he joined his unit on Gallipoli on 9 May. Three weeks later he was promoted to temporary Lance Corporal after the evacuation of 469 Lance Corporal Hector Small, who was invalided with disease (and later died). On 27 August he was promoted to temporary corporal after the Corporal Keys was invalided. After the evacuation he was transferred to the Western Front Force, Egypt. Wilson was again promoted to vice sergeant on 8 July 1916 at Romani, but was himself wounded with a gunshot wound to his left thigh and right buttock; this was severe enough for him to be invalided home, on 4 August 1916.

The annotated holes in this cap may relate to non-injurious 'close calls', rather than wounds.