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The following is an account of how I identified the
missing shoulder-cap of Ned Kelly's suit of armour.
 Up
until now (Sep 2006), I have not said much more about this story
than the brief mention I had on this site. However, I have been asked to
elaborate on
what happened so here it is:
After attending the 'Men of Iron' Armour Exhibition at the Old Melbourne Gaol
in 1999, I
wondered what had become of Ned's shoulder cap. (It was missing from his armour)
In March 2000 I began a search for this missing shoulder cap.
(Ned Kelly had two shoulder caps which protected his shoulders, he was the
only
one of the gang to have them. One was in private hands and the other somewhere
in
Government hands.)
I had read some time previous that Scienceworks in Melbourne had a single piece
of
armour. When I could not locate it at Scienceworks I rung around until I found
who did in fact have a single piece of armour.
This piece of armour was being held by Museum Victoria at their storage
facility in
Moreland, Victoria.
I contacted the Assistant Collection Manager at this facility and in reply to my
queries
was faxed a poor quality image of the piece of armour. (No. 34895)
A discussion on the telephone revealed that it looked like a 'scoop' shaped
object.
I told them that such an object was most likely Ned's missing shoulder cap.
A clearer image was then e-mailed to me with the following information:
"Our records suggest that it came from the armour of Steve Hart.
It seems to have been in public collections for some time as it came
from Exhibition Building trustees in the mid 1950's"
"The rest of the armour was transferred to the State Library in
1964,
but this remained."
"The database record suggests they were not sure what part of the
armour it had come from."
"I'd love to hear your opinion on it."
Two days later I visited this storage facility and properly identified the
armour.
It was pretty obvious because it was too small for a groin plate and was shaped
to protect the shoulder.
I was required to wear white gloves in order to handle the armour.
It was an amazing experience to handle such a piece of history and know that I
had
solved this mystery, identified a section of armour lost in the confusion for so
many
years. The tag attached to the armour contained the words 'Steve Hart'.
Obviously
this was wrong and I informed the assistant collection manager.
I requested some photographs (including 2 of me holding it) and was allowed
provided I signed copyright forms and promised to send a set of photos to
the
Museum. (which I did once they were developed)
I was very happy to have helped identify the armour, so you can imagine my
surprise when I saw on the news in September that year a man claiming that
he had solved the mystery of the mixed up suits of armour.
He claimed to have visited the same storage facility in April 2000 and came
to
the same conclusions. My thoughts were, why did the collections staff not
know
of his discovery? Why did they not say to me that it had already been worked
out?
Did he keep it to himself, not informing staff?
I am positive that during my visit they had no idea that this was not Steve's
armour.
(That is not to say that this researcher could not have visited the facility,
but if he
did it seems he told no one of his find)
I am not claiming that I am some kind of genius, anybody who took the time
could
have sorted out the armour. Ian Jones had done it 40 years previous. Comparing
the
sketches of Carrington's was an easy way to identify Ned's suit. Joe Byrnes was
in
private hands and that left Steve and Dan's. They were photographed after being
removed from the Inn fire and all one needed to do was calculate from their know
respective heights.
I have the documentary proof of what I have stated above. If someone else
was
responsible for this discovery then I am happy to say so, however to date I have
not seen any proof of this.
After being asked about all of this again I decided it was time I set the
record
straight.
Dave White.
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