Silver spoon sent from NSW to English hotel 83 years after being 'borrowed' during WWII

Australia Broadcast Center

a day ago

There has been a rare, ornate silver teaspoon sitting in John White's miscellaneous cutlery drawer for years.
The teaspoon was sent to him as part of a collection of belongings from his late mother Pamela after she died.
After noticing the engraving of Queens Hotel Southsea on the handle, Mr White decided it was time to return it to its owner, 83 years after his parents took it.
So he packaged it up in a padded envelope and wrote an accompanying letter, explaining who his parents were and why they were staying at the hotel.
"In 1944, Pamela was with the navy stationed at Portsmouth and my father was at sea on ships and perhaps during shore leave, they went to the hotel," he said.
"It's a memory of wartime when people would snatch a few moments together and going to a hotel was probably their only option.
"We had no other times when we were connected to that part of the world [Portsmouth] and wartime must've been it."
The Queens Hotel was built in 1861 and has accommodated world leaders Winston Churchill and Dwight D Eisenhower.
The Edwardian era building is rich in history, but staff at the hotel had never seen a spoon like the one that arrived from Bundanoon in the New South Wales Southern Highlands, a town of just 2,869 people.
"We don't have anything like it currently," hotel spokesperson Kate Pearce told ABC Illawarra Breakfast.
"John told us the lovely story of how he realised his parents had come to the hotel during the second world war, and he believes they 'borrowed' the teaspoon, in inverted commas.
"It's so touching they wanted something to remember their stay.
The Queens Hotel has been undergoing a process of restoration since it was bought in 2017, and Mr White's spoon will be proudly displayed in a cabinet of keepsakes.
"The teaspoon and photo of Pamela and [father] Dudley and the letter John sent us has been put into a nice presentation and will have pride of place in that cabinet now," Ms Pearce said.
"It's such a giggle but it's really lovely, we were delighted."
For Mr White, the response was bigger than he anticipated.
"They thought it was newsworthy so they got hold of the BBC and the next thing I knew I was being interviewed for one of their news programs."