With the eyes of the world’s media currently focussed on the momentous events unfolding in Egypt I thought it would be interesting to see how this country is represented in Wiltshire’s museum collections.

Museums across the county exist to preserve and display the history of Wiltshire and its people as seen through objects, images and documents.

Whilst most of these relate directly to the people and places of Wiltshire it is fascinating to take a seemingly unrelated subject area such as Egypt and see just how diverse museum collections are:

 
Knife made of jasper from the Stourhead Collection, Wiltshire Heritage Museum

Gorst family photograph album – Castle Combe Museum

The Gorst family held the manor of Castle Combe from the 1860s until after World War II. Sir John Eldon Gorst was the British consul general to Egypt from 1907 until his death at Castle Combe in 1911. This album contains photographs of the family, Egypt and Castle Combe.

Photographs of Egyptian Book of the Dead – Warminster Dewey Museum

The museum holds a set of black and white photographs of a Book of the Dead – the papyrus scroll containing inscriptions to help a soul progress into the afterlife. The photographs were originally presented to St Boniface College in Warminster by the architect Sir Charles Nicholson.

1^st World War postcards from Egypt – Market Lavington Museum

Soldiers of the Wiltshire Regiment were on duty in both Egypt and India during World War I. The museum has a number of postcards and photographs of locations such as Port Said and Suez, presumably bought as souvenirs by soldiers to send home.

‘The Battle of Egypt’ – Pewsey Heritage Centre

The 2nd World War saw fierce fighting between the Allied forces and those of Germany and Italy in locations such as El Alamein. This War Office publication of 1943 detailed the story for those at home in villages like Pewsey up and down the country.

Archaeological finds – Wiltshire Heritage Museum

With its excellent archaeological collections it is perhaps not surprising that Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes holds a number of Egyptian items. From the Stourhead collection is this knife made of jasper dating from before 3100 BC. From a much later period when the Romans arrived in Wiltshire are a number of coins produced by the Roman mints in Alexandria – global exchange of money is nothing new!

Egypt Medal – Chippenham Museum & Heritage Centre

Issued to Sgt. A Holley of Somerset, who served on board HMS Superb during the 1882 attack on Alexandria. It was this bombardment which eventually led to Egypt becoming a British protectorate until 1922.

 
Sgt. Holley's medal

These few examples illustrate well how local, national and international history are so often intertwined, with the residents of communities in Wiltshire finding their lives affected by events in a country 1000s of miles away.

Tim Burge – Museums Officer, February 2011

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