THEFT FROM A CHURCH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23333, 29 April 1939, Page 13 (Supplement)

THEFT FROM A CHURCH

Truro, in Cornwall, a salade, believed to have been worn by a member of the Trevanion family at. the battle of Bosworth in 1485, and understood to be one of two head-pieces of its type in existence, was the subject of a charge of theft against Clement Archer John Milward, of the Parsonage, Englefield, Surrey, described as a well-known dealer in antique armour. Milward pleaded guilty. The helmet for many years hung in the south aisle of Carhayes Church, and was missed in 1937. It was valued

at £l5O, and, according to Superintendent Burrough, was replaced by a German forgery of no age and apparrently little value. The original was 011 view for sale in London, and Lad been exhibited there last year. Milward, at first, was alleged to have said that the salade was sent to him by a person whose name lie could not remember from near Rochester, but later admitted that he removed the helmet. He added that he had always asked a price for it far in excess of its market value. Hs had had several good offers which he had consistently refused. Detective-Inspector Morcomb said that Milward v?as of good family and

was educated at Eton. In 1928 he served 21 days' inijmsoriment for being in possession of firearms without a certificate, under the narno of Borgia, and in 1930 was fined £lO for stealing an antique drinking hoi'n. The Bishop of Truro had asked that as Milward had not disposed of the salade, which was now to bo restored to the church, the Bendi should deal leniently with Milward. Mr. M. T. Pelloe (defending) urged that Mihvard's .action was mad and foolhardy, and that it was not that of a criminal, but of a (follector-maniac, akin to a kleptomaniac. Milward was sent to prison for three months and fined £5, the equivalent, approximately, to the money spent in tracing the helmet and bringing him to justice.