This example of Trench Art, like most that is classified under that name, was not made in a trench. It was certainly made in Cairo and probably made in the workshop of the Ministry of Irrigation (later called The Department of Nile Control). Materials are - the end of a brass shell case, 155 millimetre, made in Karlsruhe in 1905; a tooth from a hippopotamus and miscellaneous pieces of African hardwood. Dimensions. Height first 400 x 270 x 140 mm.
Dr Harold Edwin Hurst made a dinner gong, an example of 'Trench Art' from the tooth of a hippo that he shot on the Nile for its meat, either in the S. Sudan or Uganda. The shell case was a present to him from a friend in the Royal Navy who served through the Gallipoli campaign and the blockade of the Dardanelles. He picked up the shell case when the war ended and the cruiser Goeben was seized by the Royal Navy. The Goeben gained a formidable reputation as a surface raider in 1914, a threat to British and French shipping in the E. Mediterranean. After a brief destructive career the cruiser was forced to retreat into the Dardanelles under the protection of the Turkish shore batteries on Gallipoli. She remained marooned close to Constantinople until the Armistice of 1918. Ship for ship Goeben could out-gun and out-sail anything that either the British or the French had in the Mediterranean, but the Entente powers had overwhelming numbers of ships. On the outbreak of war with Belgium and France Goeben and Breslau, a light cruiser, were filling their bunkers with coal at Messina. On the 3rd of August they left port and bombarded the French Algerian coastal towns before retuning to Messina to refuel. On the 4th Britain declared war and Admiral Troubridge RN attempted to bottle up the two ships in the straits of Messina, but they escaped. For three days the German ships caused panic as they dodged back and forth around the Greek archipelago. The German Admiral Souchon awaited permission to enter Turkish waters. The Turks were neutral, in the middle of a struggle for power that would decide Turkey's part in the war. At last the message came in his favour and Souchon headed his two ships for Constantinople pursued by an overwhelming force. He entered the Dardanelles on the 10th August. Turkey entered the war on the German side in late October 1914, but Goeben and Breslau played no further part in the war in the Mediterranean. They were seized by the Royal Navy at the end of 1918. As a child before the Second World War I remember one of the Berber servants ringing this gong to announce meals. My Father remained at his post in Cairo throughout the war while my Mother, younger brother Andy and I were evacuated to England. I did not go back to Cairo until 1960.

Cairo
30.0444196,31.23571160000006
A dinner gong belonging to Dr Hurst, made from the tooth of a hippopotamus he shot, and a shell-case from the Goeben that he was given by a friend in the Royal Navy.
Other
The Dinner Gong
Dr Hurst's Dinner Gong