Piece of Round Lead Piping from Ypres Cathedral: Private W R Vaux, 45 Battalion, AIF

Small piece of lead piping. The lead piping narrows at one end. At the opposite end are ragged edges where the pipe has been cut or blown away from the rest of the pipe. The pipe has been flattened and there is a join mark along the length of the lead on one side.

Piece of lead piping from the ruins of Ypres Cathedral. The lead was collected by 3762 Private William Robert Vaux, 45 Infantry Battalion. Vaux was born in Glebe, Sydney in 1897. A labourer by profession, he enlisted at Victoria Barracks in Sydney on 10 April 1917. He embarked from Sydney on 10 May 1917 on HMAT Marathon to England with the 10th reinforcements. On 23 October 1917 he arrived in France at Le Havre. He joined the 45 Battalion in the field on 2 November 1917 along the Western Front. From February 1918 until May 1918 he suffered from successive bouts of trench fever and required recuperation in England. He also suffered from influenza in August 1918. He embarked from England on 1 July 1919, on H T Frankfurt. He arrived in Australia on 20 August 1919 and was discharged 20 September 1919. Vaux later gave this piece of lead pipe to a neighbour.