Piano accordion : VX24288 Sapper F W House, 2/9 Field Company, RAE

German manufactured `Melba' piano accordion. The black concertina section in the centre is decorated with light-blue patterned fabric. The two wooden ends have a glossy burgundy-coloured finish. Lists of names of servicemen (possibly 2/9th Field Company, RAE) have been written in white on many of its surfaces. On the keyboard-end is a list of places in the Middle East and North Africa to which the accordian was taken, including; `Bombay, Suez, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Hill 69, Jezzine, Marj-Ayoun, Dimra, Tripoli, Aleppo, Damascus. Some other names are now indecipherable due to wear. The stops on the opposite end from the keyboard have had the original caps replaced by two Palestinian coins and a New Zealand sixpence. `Thanks..., for sharing your musical talent with us, the boys of the 2/9th' has been written on the rib in the centre of the concertina section.

Associated with VX24288 Sapper F W House, 2/9th Field Company, RAE. Sapper House carried this piano accordion with him on service in the Middle East and North Africa during World War Two. He played it to entertain troops on a convoy of ships that was held up in the Suez Canal for a few weeks after a vessel was sunk in the channel.