German Regimental smoking pipe: unidentified German prisoner, Liverpool POW camp

Place Oceania: Australia, New South Wales, Sydney, Liverpool
Accession Number REL/00844
Collection type Heraldry
Object type Heraldry
Physical description Aluminium, Ebonite, Nickel-plated brass, String, Wood
Maker Sanitas
Place made Germany
Date made c 1915
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Source credit to This item has been digitised with funding provided by Commonwealth Government.
Description

Bent neck pipe, with an enclosed, lidded aluminium bowl. There are two different types of wood making up the pipe - an unidentified soft wood from which the bowl surround and the bent section are made; and a section of cherry wood making up the shank of the pipe. This neck is made from a number of parts including a flexible section made from wound twine. The mouthpiece is curved back from the pipe, and is probably made from ebonite. It has a round profile mouthpiece. A length of green twine travels from an attachment at the back of the bowl to a point high up on the shank, and is finished with a pair of decorative knots - one green, one blue.

A paper label is stuck to the shank, and displays the following words: 'Gesundheitspfeife / Mit Aluminium-Reingungs Kessel' surrouding the word 'SANITAS'. Translated, this means 'Health Pipe / with aluminium smoking bowl'.

History / Summary

No history known, other than the fact that this pipe was used and left by an unidentified German prisoner of war or internee from Liverpool (NSW) POW camp. From 1915 Liverpool camp held those 'of enemy nationality or sympathies, about three quarters of whom were Germans' - 'some 1,100 were sailors and about 850 from Singapore, Hong Kong and Ceylon, and 130 from the British and German islands in the Pacific. A further 3,272 were German subjects previously resident in Australia and 393 were naturalised Germans.' (from 'Australia During the War' by Ernest Scott, p 115).

A tin of tobacco decorated with an Iron Cross (RELAWM16536) and a German language pack of cards (Astronomisches Quartettspiel - see RELAWM16537) were also found. After the war, these and other items were collected by the State Library of New South Wales - they were passed on to the Australian War Memorial in the early 1970s.