Service dress trousers : Signalman R E Hill, Royal Australian Signal Corps

Pair of khaki wool twill service dress trousers, double pleated, with green polished cotton pocket lining and waist reinforcement panels. Provided with slash hip pockets, single rear pocket with pointed flap and concealed button, belt loops, zippered fly and three pair of buttons around the inside of the waist for the attachment of braces. A maker's cloth label is sewn to the inside, detailing the maker's name and date of manufacture, plus the following detail: 'Size 32 S W 32 I/L 28 1/2 CLASS 8405, 66-019-8481'. A second label details cleaning instructions and includes a small repair patch. A pair of blue striped elastic Police and Firemen braces with leather attachment straps are buttoned to the trousers. There are a pair of nylon webbing reinforcing strips at the base of each leg, coinciding with the trouser creases.

Standard issue mid 1960s Australian service dress trousers issued to 2786678 Signalman Russell Errol Hill for his National Service. Born 17 July 1946, Hill was called up in 1967 and entered the Army on 14 April. After 10 weeks basic initial training at Kapooka, Hill undertook specific training at the School of Signals, Balcombe, Victoria; his suitablility for training was chosen based on a tone/pitch test and Hill’s natural musical ability assisted in passing this test. He passed top of his course of an entry of 20 and was judged the quickest Morse operator. Of the 20 in his course, seventeen were posted to Vietnam, while Hill and two others were retained in Australia. After a short period at Watsonia, Hill was transferred to the Rockbank Signal Receiving Station (about 60 km west of Melbourne), where he was responsible for receiving the coded incoming message from Vung Tau every 4 hours. His final post was operating the Base Radio at Portsea, Victoria.