Edward Gilchrist Hope was born in Tiaro, Queensland, on 5 March 1892. His enlistment papers state he worked as an engine driver and wind mill builder when he enlisted in May 1915, aged 23.
Hope joined the 26th Battalion C Company in June 1915. After training at Enoggera, he arrived in Gallipoli on 11 September 1915. At the end of October he left Gallipoli with typhoid fever and spent some time in hospital in Malta and England. In August 1916 he was sent to France for the first time. All his active service after then was spent in France or Belgium.
Hope was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) for his actions near Peronne, France, in August 1918.
Hope married 19-year-old Alice Florence Pettit (Florrie) in England in Feb 1917, during one of his periods of leave. According to his nephew Ron Hope (the donor of these items), Ted met Florrie while in England, and after the war they lived there. Ted bought the first of several buses, and built up a successful business. His military record suggests Hope and his wife lived in Queensland on and off after World War 2 (WW2), although the donor believes they only came to visit, staying with his family at their homes on Fraser Island and elsewhere in Queensland.