Decorated smoking pipe: Sergeant James Erskine Hale Robinson, 2 Division Signals Company, AIF

Pipe bowl in walnut in the Canadian style, marked CAMELIA on the stem brass, into which the owner has carved the following words or decorations:

1. rear of the bowl: depiction of an emu
2. right of the bowl: 'EGYPT 1915' within a circle
3. front of the bowl: depiction of a kangaroo with 'ANZAC' within the body
4. left of the bowl: 'FRANCE over 'BELGE' within a circle, surrounded with the dates '16' '17' and '18'
5. bottom of the bowl: 'LA GUERRE'

The bowl rear has cracked down its length. There is a length of white masking tape stuck across the stem: 'Carving done by / with knife, horse shoe / nail / France 1918.'

Pipe carved by James Erskine Hale Robinson, of Perth, Western Australia. Robinson, a 31 year old married contractor enlisted on 18 February 1915 and was assigned to the Australian Army Service Corps under service number 6352. He served in Egypt and the Sinai in 1915-16 where he was attached to 2 Division Artillery (and remained with them until the end of the war). In August 1915 he transferred to newly formed 2 Division Signal Company but received a new service number - 4909. This was to cause confusion later on.

Whilst in France in 1916 he was recommended for a Military Medal (once on 14 June and again on 25 September) for his “gallant and masterful work” as a cable sergeant, but it was downgraded to a mentioned in despatches. The award was eventually recommended in March 1918.

Of the work done decorating this pipe, he wrote in 1967 that these were “done by me in idle moments - chiefly in winter. The other (pipe) was started soon after (in late 1916) and finished just before the break through by Fritz in 1918. The only tools used on the decoration were a pocket knife and a horse shoe nail.”