A man with a passion for antiques has helped uncover the fascinating past life of a vintage box dating back to wartime Japan.
Edd Woodthorpe, who runs the Cumbrian Antiques Tour, bought the large black box for £120 at an antiques shop in Cockermouth intending to use it as a television cabinet.
Edd, 44, moved to Tallentire, near Cockermouth, for a change of lifestyle after his parents moved to Keswick 15 years ago.
He explained: “The box was covered in plain black paint and I began removing the paint just to uncover the copper edging but I revealed far more.”
His handiwork found references to a Capt R D Speirs, Ravenshaw, Johnstone, Scotland; Balliol College, Oxford, and Japanese symbols.
The box also contained the word “cabin” and the initials “W.O.V” which indicated it had once been taken on a sea voyage.
This was an instruction that it was to be placed in the cabin, not the hold of a ship. The findings so intrigued Edd that he wanted to know more.
Pivotal to cracking the secret, was the Johnstone History Museum in Renfrewshire, Scotland. It helped establish there was a house in the town called Ravenshaw, and that a family named Speirs once lived there.
Ronald “Ronnie” Dougall Speirs lived there with his parents Ernest and Janet and a sister, and was born on July 19, 1925.
He had been head boy at Hutchesons’ Grammar School, Glasgow, and also served in the Second World War attaining the rank of honorary captain.
The 5th Indian Division, of which he was part of, was the first unit into Singapore as part of Operation Tiderace – the plan to retake Singapore after the Japanese surrender in August 1945. It is understood that the box may have been acquired as a “souvenir” when the Japanese handed in their weapons and ammunition.
The box was confirmed as an ammunition box of Japanese origin. He returned in 1947 and completed a degree in classics at Balliol College, Oxford.
In 1953 he married Christine, a fellow student. Records showed that on September 1 that year, he sailed on The Empress Australia, from Liverpool to the Port of Quebec, Canada – which is why the box was marked “Wanted On Voyage” – before an onward rail trip to the US.
Word of the discovery of her father’s box reached a daughter, Ruth, who confirmed: “He sailed there with my mum to study on a scholarship at Yale Divinity School for a year. He then returned to work at Paisley Abbey.”
Ronald’s obituary appeared in The Guardian in 2012 where he was hailed as a “mental health pioneer” having gone on to help open the first psychiatric day care centre in Cambridge.
Iain B Murray, of the Johnstone History Museum, said Edd had helped to uncover “an amazing story”.
