Railway signalling bugle : Lieutenant E H Skyring, 4th Australian Broad Gauge Railway Operating Company

Short nickel-plated brass horn in two pieces - a screw-on mouthpiece and reed cover, and the main body of the horn which incorporates a separate brass reed screwed into the shank behind a suspension loop. Forward of the loop, the horn changes shape from circular to a compressed oval shape. There is a rolled lip at the bell end of the horn, which is punch-stamped 'THE ACME' on its lower face.

Railway signalling bugle used by Ellis Harvey Skyring, a railway mechanical engineer of Rockhampton, Queensland during shunting operations in France. Born 5 January 1888 at Maryborough, Queensland and the son of a railway station master, Skyring enlisted on 28 October 1916 at Rockhampton, aged 28. Initially assigned to the 9th Reinforcements, 4 Pioneers and later Engineers as a sapper, he was finally transferred to the newly formed 4 Railway Section on 20 February 1917. He stated in a letter to the military authorities later in life: 'The Queensland Section went then by train to Melbourne, where the complete unit was formed, under Capt Russell. We were in Royal Park first, then at Broadmeadows.'

Skyring embarked for overseas service aboard HMAT Shropshire, departing Melbourne on 11 May 1917. In England he trained at St Lucia Barracks, Bordon, Aldershot Command, Royal Engineers before transferring to France on 4 October. Skyring noted that 'before Christmas we took over the Peronne area railway operating, but were driven out of Peronne before Villers Brett and thence to Duncourt(?).'

Commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant and posted to 4 Australian Broad Gauge Railway Operating Company on 4 June 1918, Skyring was promoted Lieutenant on 4 September. 'After the Armistice we were held there to help with British demobilisation.' Skyring noted that on the return voyage to Australia, he was the unit's history officer and wrote up the special record of the Company. After his appointment was terminated on 17 September 1919, he returned to his civilian occupation with the Queensland Railways on 18 November 1919. He died on 3 January 1981 at Sandgate, Queensland.