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

Pipe bowl in walnut in the billiard style by an unknown manufacturer, into which the owner has carved the following words or decorations:

1. rear of the bowl: 'YB'
2. right of the bowl: 'EGYPT'
3. front of the bowl: 'ANZAC'
4. left of the bowl: 'FRANCE'
5. bottom of the bowl: Rising Sun decoration

In addition the are words on the stem of the bowl:

6. right of the stem: 'SOMME' and '1915-16'
7. left of the stem: 'YPRES'
8 bottom of the stem 'BELGIUM'

The bowl front has cracked down its length, splitting the 'ANZAC' in two. There is a rolled up piece of paper written in the owner's hand inserted into the stem opening that reads: 'YB was code letters for 2ND Aust Div on Sinai Desert'. There is a similar length of white masking tape across the opening of the bowl which reads: 'Carved with knife & horse shoe / nail at odd times during / 1916, France. YB in Sinai Desert.'

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 as a driver to 16th Company, Australian Army Service Corps under service number 6352. He served in Egypt and the Sinai in 1915-16 until his transfer to the newly raised 2nd Division Signals Company in June 1916, where he was promoted sergeant and assigned a new service number, 4909.

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 gazetted 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 round bowl was bought in Cairo and started with the YB – code letters for 2nd Australian Division in the Sinai Desert - and finished at Guillemont in the Somme mud in 1916. The only tools used on the decoration were a pocket knife and a horse shoe nail.'

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