Improvised prisoner's smoking pipe: Lintang Barracks, Kuching, Borneo

Improvised smoking pipe with an octagonal bowl and an octagonal shank. This is likely made from wood local to Borneo. The mouthpiece appears to be fashioned from a piano key or similar; it has yellowed with age, and the area around the lip and bore region are black-brown with tobacco residue. On one side of the shank the owner has carved his initials: 'McP'. The bowl is black with burnt tobacco residue.

The pipe is accompanied by a gummed cut-down address label carrying the number '24'; and by a manila coloured Military History Field Team label.

This collection of pipes (REL/01988 - REL/01995) was collected by the Military History Section Field Team attached to 9th Australian Division Headquarters. Writing on 25 September 1945 to John Treloar, Director of the Australian War Memorial, and describing their activities at the Kuching POW camp, an unidentified officer wrote:

'With regard to the relics, before the Australian officers left on the morning of 13 Sep, I got them to make a selection of personal relics for the AWM. These included improvised comforts, home-made pipes, etc, some of them with a story attached. I left these at the office of the Barracks pending spraying with disinfectant, informing the staff what they were and placing a big notice on top of the box stating that the contents were relics required by the AWM and were not to be touched. You can imagine my feeling on calling back for them to find that a newly-arrived officer had assumed it was rubbish left by the Japs and had had the lot burned. However we were able to duplicate most of the items from other Australian Officers huts.'