Welsh Journals

RETURN OF A SWANSEA MUSEUM ARTEFACT When checking old records in the museum we regularly come across items listed that we can no longer find. We know that some items were sold over the years; items were stolen; some things were destroyed during a freak storm which blew the windows in; the bombing during the Second World War accounted for yet more destruction, as has woodworm and lack of proper storage. We are aware that many items were taken for safe storage to the homes of members at the outbreak of WWII and some things were lost that way, but it seems from the following story that other people decided to keep our collection safe as well. In November 2004 a letter arrived in the museum from a Mr Ellis in Yorkshire saying he was clear- ing his parent's home and had found a sword which his father always claimed had come from Swansea Museum. As a young soldier stationed in Swansea early in the war he was detailed to help move some of the more valuable items to safe storage, the ceramic collection went to Kilvrough on Gower for example. During the work detail he had noticed a sword and decided to 'look after' it himself. His son said in his letter his father had always said he should return it to Swansea, was this story likely to be true, were we missing a sword? The temptation was to say yes, please send, but museum ethics dictated we should see if we did have a missing sword. We asked for a photograph to be sent and then combed the records to see if there was anything that it could be. In the museum catalogue of 1913 there was a list of items presented by Sir Francis Wallace Grenfell entitled 'Relics of the Egyptian War' which included a sword. The 'Sword of a Dervish Emir killed at the Battle of Tosld' could not be found in any listing after 1940 and sounded a likely candidate. With this information we informed Mr Ellis we would be happy to accept the story his father had told and accept a wandering item back into the collection. We are particularly pleased to have this item as so much of this collection seems not to be in the museum anymore, perhaps other items will one day turn up, one of the two Ivory Armlets or two Saddles would be nice to see! Bernice Cardy