Military bugle presented to 9th -12th Reinforcements, 27 Battalion AIF by Sir Josiah Symon

Standard B flat military bugle of soldered construction, made with copper tubing body and brass bell, joiners, mouth tube, rear tube facing plate and retaining chain plate. The chain is missing. The mouthpiece is plain brass. The top of the bell is engraved 'To [effaced] th, 27th AIF leaving for Active Service -from- The Hon. Sir Josiah Symon To sound the bugle call to victory 5.11.15'. Below this is an impressed coat of arms, and the maker's name. A green cord and tassels is knotted around the lower tubes.

The bell has suffered impact damage along the top of the bell and upper tube and the brass bell insert is split vertically in four places. Both copper and brass surfaces are extensively pitted. The bugle displays the signs of having been regularly polished after damage.

One of three bugles presented to 9th to 12th Reinforcements, 27 Battalion AIF by Sir Josiah Symon, KCMG on 5 November 1915. Symon (1846 – 1934), lawyer, politician, statesman and champion of Federation had recently retired from politics but remained a fervent supporter of Australian statehood.

He stated in his donation letter of April 1929: ‘One of my sons, Oscar Sturt Symon was in 27th Battalion and in or about November 1915 was appointed lieutenant with the 16th [actually the 9th to 12th] Reinforcements .... Early in November before the reinforcement left he said it would please them all very much if I presented to them a service bugle. Fortunately I was able to secure not one but three which I presented to the reinforcement then in camp at Mitcham in Adelaide, the camp commandant being Major Stuart, in private life Master of the Supreme Court. On 5 November 1915 I attended at the camp where the Reinforcement was paraded and was invited to address them and present the three bugles.

‘After the war my son Oscar brought back to me one of the bugles which had been found on the field after a battle in France. Subsequently a returned soldier in Queensland wrote to me that he had a bugle which he had also picked up on the battlefield after an engagement and which, as well as he could make out, bore my name and if that was so, he would be very pleased to send to me, which he did.

‘The one which my son brought back I gave to Major Stuart and the other I should be glad to present to the Memorial’.

“The Adelaide Advertiser” reported on the handover ceremony on 7 February 1916, noting that Lieutenant Burton received the ‘mementoes’ and ‘called for three cheers for the flag and three more for the donor’. The newspaper recorded Symon’s speech, which can be considered typical of the style and tone of send-off many troops experienced prior to departure, and includes the following exhortations: ‘You men are about to do your part in a Holy cause and are answering the noblest call in history. The fight on our side is for humanity against barbarity. On such an occasion I am proud to be permitted to present you with this flag and these bugles. The flag is only a bit of bunting but it is the emblem of freedom – freedom which is the prerogative of our race. It is the old Union Jack emblazoned with our Southern Cross. You will, I am convinced, keep it flying and will bring it back untarnished with the added glory of your achievements. The bugles will contribute to worthily salute the flag. They are inscribed ‘Sound the bugle call to victory’. I do not believe they will ever sound the retreat. It is a pleasure to meet Corporal Bugler Dick who is from my own country – Scotland. I hope that I shall be able to welcome you when you come back and hear the bugles play ‘See the Conquering Heroes Come’.’

Don Wright in the Australian Dictionary of Biography comments on Symon’s oratory style, giving some idea of the effect of his speech. ‘Over six feet tall, with a spare and muscular frame, Symon had a broad forehead and a face 'full of power and character'; he bore himself with dignity. His eyes might 'gleam like cold steel' or 'glow with merriment' as he conveyed the range of emotions in a clear and resonant voice. Clearly marshalled, his arguments were unfolded in a manner that was 'winning, gracious and sympathetic'.’

Bugler 3794 Corporal Robert Lambert Dick, a 25 year old plasterer from Stirling, Scotland, was working in Adelaide when he decided to enlist. He was later transferred to 50 Battalion where he was awarded a Military Medal for his actions as a runner at Mouquet Farm in 1916. His story continues later.

The Queensland soldier has not been identified, but the pitted condition of the copper skin on the bugle he recovered from the battlefield certainly attests to a period of neglect.

The 9th to 12th Reinforcements for 27 Battalion embarked on 7 February 1916 from Adelaide aboard HMAT Militiades, arriving Suez on 9 March where they joined their battalion and eventually proceeded to France as part of the 2nd Australian Division. They entered the front-line initially on 7 April and took part the battle at Pozières between 28 July and 5 August. The battalion saw action at Bullecourt, Ypres, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Amiens, Albert, Mont St Quentin, Hindenburg Line and Beaurevoir, By the end of the war, the battalion had suffered 762 killed and 2,155 wounded.

Lieutenant Oscar Symon left the battalion soon after arrival in Egypt and was posted to command 1 Anzac Cyclist Battalion where he remained for most of the war.

In1929, following news of Sir Josiah Symon’s donation of the recovered bugle to the Australian War Memorial, a letter appeared in the December 12 edition of the Scottish newspaper, ‘The Stirling Journal and Adventurer’, revealing the location of the third bugle. The letter, written by Dick, who was still working as a plasterer in his family’s business in Stirling, noted that he was employed in Australia at the outbreak of the war, and ‘although experiencing difficulty in enlisting, ultimately became attached in the capacity of bugler, to the ninth reinforcements of the 27th AIF Battalion.’

Eighteen months later, in mid 1917, Robert Dick and Oscar Symons met on the Somme: ‘Symons asked Mr Dick whether he had in his possession as principal bugler to the reinforcements, any of the bugles presented by his father. Mr Dick replied that he had in his possession two of the bugles, and promptly returned one to Mr Symon who in due course returned it to his father, while Mr Dick retained a bugle which had been inscribed, at the time of presentation, with his own name.’ In a separate letter, Robert Dick explained that he intended to keep the bugle which was displayed with pride in his house.

Another bugle presented to 27 Battalion earlier in 1915 by the Adelaide Cheer Up Society is held at REL/01478.