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At the age of 12 or so I started telling friends of my parents’ that I had a museum in the hope that they would give me things to go in it. I am so grateful to their generosity and encouragement. Until lockdown starts to be eased, I thought I might share some of the contents.
My Museum 1: an eskimo fish hook given to me by Stan Marshall, owner of the Boat Inn, Gnosall, by the Shropshire Union Canal. c. 1963.
My Museum 2: a coin commemorating the opening of the Thames Tunnel in 1843 which runs between Rotherhithe and Wapping. The coin, like the fish hook, was given to me by Stan Marshall who had a parrot called Tommy Tight Arse. It entertained Stan’s customers calling out its name.
My Museum 3: ‘Ashes, and lapillis from last eruption 6.7.8.9.10.11.12 april 1905.’ ‘Vesuvius’ helpfully added in biro. This was given to me by Ernie Capaldi who mended cars at Ayebridges Garage, Thorpe Lea - between the village of Thorpe and Staines.
My Museum 4:
My grandmother learned First Aid with this bandage when she trained as a nurse at St Thomas’ before the Great War. Coming up to London in the 1950s, seeing the bomb damage to the hospital, we thought it was granny’s doing - that she’d left the gas on or something.
My grandmother learned First Aid with this bandage when she trained as a nurse at St Thomas’ before the Great War. Coming up to London in the 1950s, seeing the bomb damage to the hospital, we thought it was granny’s doing - that she’d left the gas on or something.
My Museum 5:
One of the photographs my mother kept by her bedside. Never such innocence again.
One of the photographs my mother kept by her bedside. Never such innocence again.
My Museum: 6
Another coin given to me by Stan Marshall. Aged 9 and 11 my sister and I were put on a train at Watford to stay at Stan and Ros’s pub near Stafford. We had a lovely time, though my sister Sal was bitten - as she put it in her postcard home - ‘by a thame squirrel.’
Another coin given to me by Stan Marshall. Aged 9 and 11 my sister and I were put on a train at Watford to stay at Stan and Ros’s pub near Stafford. We had a lovely time, though my sister Sal was bitten - as she put it in her postcard home - ‘by a thame squirrel.’
My Museum: 7
Two Mesolithic(?) arrow heads from a settlement close to the Zambezi given to me by Fed Uhlmann, a friend of my dad’s who had been a lawyer for the German Labour Party until the Nazis forced him into exile. He fetched up in Hampstead & became a painter and novelist.
Two Mesolithic(?) arrow heads from a settlement close to the Zambezi given to me by Fed Uhlmann, a friend of my dad’s who had been a lawyer for the German Labour Party until the Nazis forced him into exile. He fetched up in Hampstead & became a painter and novelist.
My Museum 8:
A tankard from my great granny’s pub, The Railway Arms in Ramsgate. My pa remembered her ruling the saloon bar with a pint of milk and whisky in her fist. Sailors would take the pewter tankards abroad and have them engraved. This one evidently went to China.
A tankard from my great granny’s pub, The Railway Arms in Ramsgate. My pa remembered her ruling the saloon bar with a pint of milk and whisky in her fist. Sailors would take the pewter tankards abroad and have them engraved. This one evidently went to China.
My Museum: 9
A sizeable fragment of Samian Ware given to me by Kathleen Cooper Abbs then the tenant of Mount Grace Priory, Yorkshire. In June 1967 I slid away from a tea party with Miss Abbs, my parents & the Bishop of Ripon to listen to A Whiter Shade of Pale on our car radio.
A sizeable fragment of Samian Ware given to me by Kathleen Cooper Abbs then the tenant of Mount Grace Priory, Yorkshire. In June 1967 I slid away from a tea party with Miss Abbs, my parents & the Bishop of Ripon to listen to A Whiter Shade of Pale on our car radio.
My Museum: 10
A box of matches from Mauritius. My great grandfather on my mother’s side set out from Aberdeen in the second half of 19th century to be the Presbyterian minister to the island. He is buried out there in what is now the multi-faith graveyard at Rose-Hill.
A box of matches from Mauritius. My great grandfather on my mother’s side set out from Aberdeen in the second half of 19th century to be the Presbyterian minister to the island. He is buried out there in what is now the multi-faith graveyard at Rose-Hill.
My Museum: 11
When I was eleven every boy I knew had a sheath knife dangling off their S belt. Mine was given to me by my godfather, Jimmy Edwards, whose luxuriant handlebar moustache hid scars received piloting a burning Dakota at Arnhem. He’d been a patient of Archibald McIndoe
When I was eleven every boy I knew had a sheath knife dangling off their S belt. Mine was given to me by my godfather, Jimmy Edwards, whose luxuriant handlebar moustache hid scars received piloting a burning Dakota at Arnhem. He’d been a patient of Archibald McIndoe
My Museum: 12
My first school cap - The Marist Convent, Sunninghill 1957-1960. Favourite nun: Sister Louis. The building had been Eisenhower’s HQ during the war. Moth attacked the back of the cap but I put it a deep freezer and that seems to have solved the problem - D.G.
My first school cap - The Marist Convent, Sunninghill 1957-1960. Favourite nun: Sister Louis. The building had been Eisenhower’s HQ during the war. Moth attacked the back of the cap but I put it a deep freezer and that seems to have solved the problem - D.G.
My Museum: 13
These buttons were given to me by Paul Goudime, whose father had been a General in the Russian Imperial army. Mr Goudime lived on St Ann’s Hill near Chertsey, not far from Keith Moon. Others of his buttons I sewed onto the ex-RAF greatcoat I wore as a student 1970-3
These buttons were given to me by Paul Goudime, whose father had been a General in the Russian Imperial army. Mr Goudime lived on St Ann’s Hill near Chertsey, not far from Keith Moon. Others of his buttons I sewed onto the ex-RAF greatcoat I wore as a student 1970-3
My Museum:14
Back to Staffordshire and another donation from Stan Marshall at the Boat Inn, Gnosall - a banknote from the American Civil War. Apart from being able to chant its name, Stan’s parrot Tommy Tight Arse could whistle the opening bars of the theme from Z Cars.
Back to Staffordshire and another donation from Stan Marshall at the Boat Inn, Gnosall - a banknote from the American Civil War. Apart from being able to chant its name, Stan’s parrot Tommy Tight Arse could whistle the opening bars of the theme from Z Cars.
My Museum: 15
My great aunt Rose Muir’s MBE. Matron of Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand, in 1937 she was one of 10 nurses who were the first members of the profession to be appointed an MBE. She helped set up a chapel honouring nurses who died in WW1 & the flu of 1918
My great aunt Rose Muir’s MBE. Matron of Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand, in 1937 she was one of 10 nurses who were the first members of the profession to be appointed an MBE. She helped set up a chapel honouring nurses who died in WW1 & the flu of 1918
My Museum: 16
This fragment of a lamp I spotted in the side of a trench in Rome in 1970.The men digging the hole for a utility company were on their lunch break, so I nipped down and liberated it. James Michener’s The Source inspired my passion for (unscientific) archaeology.
This fragment of a lamp I spotted in the side of a trench in Rome in 1970.The men digging the hole for a utility company were on their lunch break, so I nipped down and liberated it. James Michener’s The Source inspired my passion for (unscientific) archaeology.
My Museum: 17
Childhood finds from the flowerbeds of my parents’ garden at Thorpe, near Egham.
Childhood finds from the flowerbeds of my parents’ garden at Thorpe, near Egham.
My Museum: 18
My mother made ballet shoes for ‘Jamie’ after his feet were chewed off by puppies. Has anyone written a paper on the psychopathology of naming one’s teddy bear after oneself?
My mother made ballet shoes for ‘Jamie’ after his feet were chewed off by puppies. Has anyone written a paper on the psychopathology of naming one’s teddy bear after oneself?
My Museum: 19
My grandfather Charles Muir’s Certificate of Continuous Discharge. An engineer in the Merchant Navy, he was made redundant in the 1930s. He moved from Broadstairs to Leyton and got a job overseeing the plant at a carbon paper manufacturers.
My grandfather Charles Muir’s Certificate of Continuous Discharge. An engineer in the Merchant Navy, he was made redundant in the 1930s. He moved from Broadstairs to Leyton and got a job overseeing the plant at a carbon paper manufacturers.
One weekend he was asked to check a faulty boiler when he had a heavy cold and should have been in bed; but his general conduct being ‘Very Good’ (how patronising), he went into work, caught pneumonia, and died soon afterwards.
