{"id":7869,"date":"2010-02-09T17:19:05","date_gmt":"2010-02-09T06:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=7869"},"modified":"2010-02-09T17:19:05","modified_gmt":"2010-02-09T06:19:05","slug":"31st-bn-cornet-at-fromelles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=7869","title":{"rendered":"Last Post on Cornet"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cornet presented to the\u00a031st<\/sup> Battalion at Enoggera Army Barracks in Brisbane, Queensland, in August 1915, on the occasion of the Battalion\u2019s inclusion as part of the\u00a0\u00a08th<\/sup> Brigade has been sounding the Last Post and the Rouse\u00a0at the re-burial of soldiers killed at the Battle of Fromelles whose remains were recovered from the burial pits at Pheasant Wood.<\/p>\n

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The cornet, made in about 1911 by Boosey & Co, of London, was presented to the 31st<\/sup> Battalion by Mr A J Cotton of \u201cHidden Vale\u201d, a sizeable property at Grandchester.<\/p>\n

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The cornet is a close relative of the trumpet and is typically pitched in B-flat. Larger brass bands usually include an e-flat soprano cornet. The cornet is the smallest instrument used in the brass band. When played, the cornet is held straight out from the lips with the valves vertical or slightly inclined to the player\u2019s right. The right hand is used to manipulate the valves and the left hand supports the instrument.<\/p>\n

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The cornet is engraved with \u201cSolbron (Registered) Class A Trademark BOOSEY Light Valve Boosey & Co, Makers, London, 90735, Guaranteed British Made Throughout. Presented to\u00a031st<\/sup> Battalion A.I.F. by Mr. A. J. Cotton, \u201cHidden Vale\u201d, Grandchester, August, 1915\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Shortly after the presentation of the cornet, 31st<\/sup> Bn had a Ragtime Band that may have included the cornet, as evidenced by the following photo held in the Australian War Memorial Collection.\u00a0 While it is not possible to detect the engraving in the photo and the mouthpiece was longer in 1915, the cornet looks to be otherwise identical to the 96 year old cornet\u00a0that was presented to the 31st<\/sup> Bn.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Portrait of A Company, 31st<\/sup> Battalion, Ragtime Band October 1915 AWM DAX0831<\/p>\n

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The names of the 31st<\/sup> Bn soldiers who played the cornet are not known, however it is known that\u00a0the 31st<\/sup> Bn, as part of the 8th<\/sup> Brigade, 5th<\/sup> Australian Division was one of the attacking battalions in the Battle of Fromelles on 19 July, 1916, the battalion\u2019s first major battle.<\/p>\n

Presumably the cornet remained with the 31st<\/sup> Bn for some or all of its time during The Great War before returning to Australia. The battalion\u2019s other Great War Battle Honours include Somme 1916, Bapaume (March 1917), Bullecourt (May 1917), Menin Road (September 1917), Polygon Wood (October 1917), Poelcappelle (October 1917), 1st<\/sup> Passchendaele (October 1917), Ancre (April 1918), Amiens (August 1918), Albert (August 1918), Mont St. Quentin (September 1918), Hindenburg Line\u00a0(September \u2013 October 1918), and St. Quentin Canal (September \u2013 October 1918).<\/p>\n

What happened to the cornet after that is a bit of a mystery until FFFAIF member and long-time researcher into\u00a0historical aspects of the\u00a031st<\/sup> Battalion in World War I, Peter Nelson, saw an engraved brass cornet appear in eBay on-line auctions in mid 2009.<\/p>\n

Peter had also found a photograph in his grandfather’s photo collection showing\u00a0 three soldiers, two of whom are holding bugles.\u00a0 They are thought to be from the 31st<\/sup> Battalion based on Peter’s grandfather’s\u00a0war service and supported by the shape and shades of their colour patches.\u00a0 The photo was possibly taken in later in the war – perhaps in 1917 or 1918 based on comparisons of uniforms and buttons.\u00a0Peter would appreciate any information identifying the soldiers or location.<\/p>\n

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The cornet needed some repairs after 96 years, so in early September 2009 Peter decided to have the cornet brought back to working order and placed it with a restorer, Legato, in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. This firm was set-up in the 1930s and specialises in brass and woodwind instruments. They have parts for musical instruments dating back to the 1890s and had a true understanding of the significance of the history of this instrument. They have also provided bugles to Army Messes over the years and know a bit about military bands.<\/p>\n

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The task was to find and replace two valves, repair the small tear to the back of the tube, get the sliding parts moving again, and remove a couple of dents, but leave enough to keep the \u2018feeling\u2019 of the journey that this instrument has been through, and lightly highlight significant parts of the cornet.<\/p>\n

It was Peter\u2019s hope to have the instrument played at the dedication of the cemetery at Fromelles on July 19 this year, as quite a few of the missing are\u00a031st<\/sup> men \u2014 and the cornet would have been with the battalion at this first terrible action.\u00a0 Peter commented to the\u00a031st<\/sup> Infantry Battalion Association’s News Bulletin The Whispering Boomerang<\/em> \u201cThis seems a wonderful opportunity to restore some of the cornet\u2019s former glory, at a ceremony which is sure to resonate with poignant memories of the brave Australian soldiers \u2014 some of whom served in the\u00a031st<\/sup> \u2014 who will be re-buried with honours at Fromelles in a final, full recognition of their sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter\u2019s hopes have been exceeded in that the cornet will be played at the Fromelles Cemetery Dedication on 19 July 2010 and Peter will be at Fromelles with the FFFAIF Western Front Tour and hopes to be able to see the Dedication Service. In addition, special dispensation was obtained to allow the Last Post to be sounded on the cornet at the military funerals accompanying the re-burials of all of the\u00a0soldiers killed at the Battle of Fromelles whose remains were recovered from the burial pits at Pheasant Wood.<\/p>\n

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The Last Post\u00a0is sounded on the cornet of the\u00a031st<\/sup> Battalion AIF<\/p>\n

The Cornet has been played\u00a0in Fromelles\u00a0for each day of re-burials, where it has performed either the Last Post or the Rouse.\u00a0 The Cornet also sounded The Rouse at the Last Post Ceremony at Menin Gate on\u00a0Thursday 11 February.<\/p>\n

BBC News carried an interview with MUSC Jeffrey Poole, who sounded\u00a0the Last Post on the cornet during the ceremony.\u00a0 Click on the following link to see the informative BBC News interview from\u00a0Saturday, 30 January 2010: ‘Special significance’ of cornet played at Fromelles<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

FFFAIF would like to thank the 31st<\/sup> Infantry Battalion Association’s News Bulletin The Whispering Boomerang <\/em>and its editor Colin Jackson as well as Peter Nelson for permission to use extracts from the December 2009 issue of The Whispering Boomerang.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The cornet presented to the\u00a031st Battalion at Enoggera Army Barracks in Brisbane, Queensland, in August 1915, on the occasion of the Battalion\u2019s inclusion as part of the\u00a0\u00a08th Brigade has been sounding the Last Post and the Rouse\u00a0at the re-burial of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}