Double Bowl Pipe : Private C Cooke, Queensland Mounted Infantry

Double bowl briar pipe. The Pipe has been fashioned out of a single piece of wood and the two bowls run one behind the other. The rims and the lining of the bowls have a thin metal covering to stop the wood from burning when the pipe is lit..The inner bowl has a thumb rest fashioned into it while the outer bowl has had a raised decorative pattern which runs in a line from the tip of the bowl to part of the way up the underside of the pipe's stem. A small section of this pattern has been broken.

Double bowl briar pipe made in South Africa and brought back to Australia by Private Charles Cooke. Cooke joined the Second Queensland Mounted Infantry Contingent when it was raised for service in South Africa on 29 December, 1899. He was allocated the service number 149 and the rank of private. After two weeks of training, the contingent numbering 10 officers, 144 other ranks and 178 horses, embarked in the transport 'Maori King' from Brisbane on 13 January 1900. The contingent disembarked in Cape Town on 24 February and went into Maitland Camp for four days. On 28 February, Cooke travelled with the contingent to Modder River, arriving there on 3 March. On arrival, the contingent joined Lord Robert's field force. Cooke saw action at Osfontein, Poplar Grove and Driefontein. He also saw action in the series of skirmishes leading up to the occupation of Bloemfontein. Cooke was chosen to spend time in Lord Robert's Bodyguard Detachment. This unit was made up of one man from each of the British Colonies and accompanied Lord Roberts wherever he travelled. Cooke returned to the Queensland contingent later in the year and saw further action at Belfast with Chauvel's Mounted Infantry. Cooke embarked at Cape Town with the Second Contingent in the transport ship 'Tongariro' on 30 March 1901 and after a brief stop in Fremantle on 20 April, disembarked in Sydney on 29 April. The contingent travelled by train to Brisbane on 1 May, arriving two days later. Cooke was discharged on 10 May and the Second Contingent was disbanded.