Brass tray embossed with unofficial Australian 7th Light Horse badge : Lieutenant D R Waddell, 7 Light Horse Regiment, AIF

A rectangular heavy brass tray with raised edges and incised decoration. The main panel of the tray features a crowded designed loosely based on ancient Egyptian illustrations, featuring pyramids, sphinx, pharoahs, warriors and peasants. Centrally located within the design is the unofficial badge of the 7th Light Horse featuring a crown over the Latin phrase "Patria Te Salutamus" (Our Country, We Salute You) over "L7H / AUSTRALIA". The outer edge design is a repeating flower pattern. The outer rim has been finished by the lip being beaten underneath.

Associated with the service of Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Ronald Waddell, 7th Light Horse Regiment, who enlisted on 28 August 1915 and returned to Australia on 29 April 1919. The only reference available to Waddell so far discovered is in "Nat Barton's letters home 1914-1918" (editor Robin Barclay), wherein Barton states in a letter dated Cairo, 31 August 1916 that "Colonel Fuller much to our surprise is practically all right, and scarcely lame. Windeyer and Waddell are being sent to Australia, and Ryan has gone to England." (p 124). The reference is associated with the battle for Romani. Waddell's daughter confirms that he had been wounded under the tongue and recovered in Australia, but returned to active duty with the 7th Light Horse as soon as he could; certainly in time for the Beersheeba charge on 31 October 1917, during which he photographed the Australians massing prior to the charge. Post war, Waddell transferred to the 16th Light Horse Regiment (the Hunter River Lancers), becoming its Commanding Officer during the 1930s. The tray was made by Turkish prisoners of war as a money making venture and were amongst a "trunkful" of souvenirs brought home by Waddell.