Calix Sanguinis Christi

Maundy Thursday is the day on which the church commemorates the Last Supper. It was with great pleasure that I saw the school newsletter Hearts and Wings today, and a piece in it announcing formally that the East India Communion Silver has been returned to the school.

Picture from Hearts and Wings
Archivist Toby Parker and Chaplain Rev Chris Briggs

The set was made by Rundell and Bridge in London in 1815, William Pitts being the craftsman who did the work. After the closure of the Esat India College the plate was passed to Coopers Hill Engineering College.

In his history of Haileybury up to 1909, Haileybury College Past and Present LS Milford tells the story of the set coming to the school.

On February 9, 1907, Mr. Croslegh (a great-grandson of Dr. Batten), whose father was formerly Chaplain at Cooper's Hill, came up to see the Master and suggested to him that he should put in a claim for the Communion Plate which had formerly belonged to the H.E.I.C. at Haileybury, and had been removed to the India Office on the closing of Cooper's Hill. The Master accordingly wrote direct to Mr. John Morley, who most kindly, without any delay, acknowledged the justice of the claim, and sent down the plate. An admirable photograph of it was published in the Haileyburian. Sir John Ottley records on the box that the plate was " made in 1816." 

The vessels were carried in and used for the first time at the Choral Celebration on Easter Day.