Good News

"You must see this!" The first thing a friend who I have not seen for some time said to me when I saw him at my installtion. With that he thrust a piece of paper into my hand. It was from a catalogue for an auction of silver.

Insurance picture of the EIC Communion Plate

Years ago at dinner I had told him - he is very knowledgable about silver and such things - about the loss of the East India Company Communion Plate which was stolen from the Chapel after a service in the summer of 1996.

Now here was the sale catalogue from an auction house in Sailsbury: and there was a set of East India Company Communion Plate!

"You have GOT to show the authorities at Haileybury," enthused my friend. "They're mainly here!" I replied and forthwith introduced him to the Master and the Chaplain.

It looked promising. But we thought, maybe there was more than one set of EIC silver. Would there have been a set for the military training college at Addiscombe? Maybe they had a set for use in a London church or in India? Were we to be disappointed? My friend Michael to the rescue again. He knows Wynyard Wilkinson, the leading expert on the silver of the British Empire. EIC silver is exceedingly rare. If this is not the Haileybury Silver then it is some unknown set.

The picture from the sale catalogue

Well, now the police are involved. There is no allegation that the auction house has done anything wrong. I for one am not interested in who stole it all. It would just be wonderful to have it back and in use in the Chapel where it belongs. We await news. I had hoped to be able to report that it is on its way back, but not yet. The General Committee last week were delighted and the school were told from the pulpit of chapel on Friday. The chaplain has not stopped grinning, so my spies among the pupils tell me.