Upnor Brothers Artefacts Included In Radio 4's History of the World in 100 Objects
By PatsyAble | Friday, March 05, 2010, 15:45
Two historic artefacts residing at Rochester’s Guildhall Museum have been included in BBC Radio 4’s History of the World in 100 Objects.
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The Pocock's Headstone
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Henry Morton Stanley
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Edward Pocock's Funeral
The ceremonial club and axe belonged to Upnor brothers Edward and Francis Pocock, members of an Anglo-American expedition to Central Africa with Henry Morton Stanley (he of “Dr. Livingstone, I presume” fame – finding the doctor was actually the purpose of the explorer’s first expedition) which unfortunately turned out to be fatal for the siblings, with Edward succumbing to illness early on in their travels in 1875, aged just 22, and Francis, 27, perishing at the Zinga Falls on the 3rd June 1877.
Stanley passed the objects to the brothers’ father in 1892; in 1917, the family donated them to the Guildhall where they were re-discovered in the museum stores in 2001, remaining as a lasting commemoration to the brothers’ role in “aiding to complete great discoveries and to bring light to the people that sit in darkness" and showing how local people were caught up in a much larger world event – the exploration of a new continent and the adventures of national heroes such as Livingstone and Stanley.
Comments
And their uncle with John Franklin too! Can't be many families with a history like that! Did you get those from the Guildhall? Fascinating place.
By Bumbles_30 at 16:07 on 06/03/10
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