POWs often utilised their spare time with the manufacture art and craft pieces, usually using whatever materials available. They would either send the objects home as keepsakes for loved ones or trade them for food and cigarettes. During the First World War, many of the Turkish POWs in British hands used their empty hours in the manufacture of intricate beadwork. This snake was made by a Turkish POW captured at Gallipoli, and given to Victor Mackie, a soldier in the Royal Monmouthshire Regiment.