Bullet damaged leather boot : Lieutenant Colonel H E Elliott, 7 Battalion, AIF

Places
Accession Number RELAWM01089.001
Collection type Heraldry
Object type Uniform
Physical description Leather, Steel
Location Main Bld: First World War Gallery: The Anzac Story: Gallipoli: The Grand Plan
Maker D & W Murray Ltd
Place made Australia: South Australia, Adelaide
Date made pre 1915
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Description

Australian Army issue tan leather ankle boot (for the right foot) without toecap. The boot has a short tongue made of soft beige coloured leather, and a glued-in cork insole with a red felt upper surface, of which only the front (sole) section remains. The soles are of stitched leather, and are reinforced with rows of small iron staples. The heels are edged with a double row of iron staples to reduce wear, and have eleven iron nails to reinforce their attachment to the sole. There are six pairs of 12 mm steel eyelets for laces. The laces themselves are missing. Part of an oval-shaped stamp, which would originally have read 'D & W. MURRAY LTD ADELAIDE' is visible, impressed into the leather above the inner ankle. There is a small hole in the inner surface of the boot near the ankle and 55 mm above the sole, apparently caused by a bullet.

History / Summary

Australian Army tan leather boot, one of a pair worn by (then) Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col) Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott, commanding officer of 7 Battalion, AIF. Soon after the landing at Gallipoli on the morning of 25 April 1915, a Turkish bullet hit the instep of this boot, lodging in the wearer's heel. Lt Col Elliott was evacuated to Egypt on the evening of the same day, and did not rejoin his battalion until early in June. At the time of donation the boots in April 1921, General Elliot described them as, 'an old pair of worn ammunition boots which I was wearing on the day of the landing one showing the tiny hole made by the bullet which wounded me.'