Silver teaspoon returned to The Queens Hotel after young couple 'borrowed' it 83 years ago
A silver teaspoon, which was ‘borrowed’ by a young couple as a momento in 1942, has been returned to a hotel after sitting in a drawer in Australia for five decades.
More than 80 years after it was first ‘borrowed’ by a young couple, a silver teaspoon belonging to The Queens Hotel, Southsea, has been returned after being discovered in a drawer in New South Wales, Australia.
The hotel was sent a padded envelope containing the spoon, and a letter, from the couple’s son, John, who wrote it had been ‘borrowed 83 years earlier’ while his parents were on leave.
John’s mum, Pamela, was stationed at Portsdown hill as a signals distribution officer for the Commander in Chief and was there for the D-Day landings, while his dad, Dudley, was a No 1 officer onboard HMS Victorious.
In his letter, John wrote: “We hope you have not missed the spoon too much and will forgive a young couple taking a memento which has been tucked away in a drawer in Australia for the last 50 years.”
Paul Playford, general manager at The Queens Hotel, said: “He told us he was returning the teaspoon that had been ‘borrowed’ 83-years earlier by his parents.
“His mother was a Wren and his father was a Naval Officer and it seems they took the teaspoon as a memento of a precious time spent at the hotel during World War II.
During the war, the hotel welcomed a plethora of historic figures including the likes of Sir Winston Churchill and General Eisenhower, and most famously, General Charles de Gaulle resided at the Queens for a long period of time.
The teaspoon and letter will take pride of place in the cabinet that holds other significant items from The Queens Hotel’s fascinating past.
John said: “I can only assume the teaspoon incident happened, deliberate or not, in 1944 and was a memento of a brief time together on leave at your lovely hotel.”
Paul added: “Of course we would never condone anyone ‘borrowing’ items from The Queens Hotel but this story is so lovely we wanted to share it.”