A
mudlark
is someone who looks through river mud to find interesting or valuable
items. Through history, most mudlarks were poor and unskilled and
searched through city sewage to make a living. The modern mudlark is
more likely to use a metal detector for treasure hunting as a hobby.
Nicola White was mudlarking and found a brass luggage tag with the name
F. Jury on it, with an address. That was the beginning of the journey to
find F. Jury.
Occasionally, a seemingly innocuous
find in the River Thames such as this, can be compared to opening up a
glorious story book. It is no secret that it is the hidden stories
behind the items which I find washed out by the Thames tide, which fuel
my passion for mudlarking. With the help of a lot of people on twitter,
(after I posted a picture of F. Jury's brass luggage tag last Thursday
27th August), I was to find that this small, muddy object was to
conjure up a whole family of people from the past, with their lives
opening up before me like an intriguing novel. These people and their
very real dilemmas have lain forgotten for years (especially in this
case, as there seems to be no living close relatives). So here is a
brief outline of the very worthy life of Frederick Jury, the owner of
the luggage tag, discovered in the Thames mud on 27th August 2015 at
Enderby Wharf Greenwich.
The luggage tag turned out
to be older than he imagined. Frederick Jury was born in 1873. With help
from strangers and historical records and resources, White uncovered
his story. Not only is it a glimpse into the everyday lives of some
turn-of-the-century British folk, but
the account follows Jury through World War I and afterward.
White even went to search for Jury’s gravesite. The story is not only
fascinating, but well told. White makes us really care about one person,
as well as his family, who lived and died so long ago.
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