SIGNATURES OF MIGHTY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 109, 11 May 1933, Page 11

SIGNATURES OF MIGHTY

PRICELESS COLLECTION. LARGEST IN THE WORLD. Probably the largest in the world, and reputed to be priceless, a collection of 32,000 autographs of world-fam-ous men and women is housed at Martin’s Croft, Macclesfield, England, tho home of Major David Halstead, former M.P. for Rossendalc Valley. Major Halstead has received several tempting offers from America, but he states that he has no intention of selling a single autograph. He commenced to pursue his hobby when 10 years of age. Every sphere of life is represented in this unique collection, and in many instances he has travelled to the far corners of the earth to obtain representative specimens. Between 300 and 400 of the signatures aro those of English and German Royalty and their families, from George I. to the present generation. There is oven an autograph of Frederick the Great. One slip of paper bears the autographs of four successive Prime Ministers, Messrs. H. H. Asquith, David Lloyd George, Stanley Baldwin and Ramsay MacDonald. In addition he ias the autographs of every British

Prime Minister from Walpole in 1725 to tho present holder of the office. Even the Great War did not interfere with Major Halstead’s thirst for autographs. For a long time he was in command of a Turkish prisoners’ camp in Egypt, where he kept a visitors’ book. Two interesting signatures on the same page are those of Lawrence of Arabia and Captain Lloyd, now Lord Lloyd. Great soldiers such as the Duke of Wellington, Napoleon, Gordon, Buller and Roberts are represented, and Major Halstead also owns two historic prints of the charges of the Heavy and Light Brigades at Balaclava, on which are inscribed tho autographs of the leaders. There is scarcely a world-famous figure of the past century whose signature is not to bo found in the collection; Sir Walter Scott, Fox, Burke, Wilberforce, John Bright, Ruskin, the Rossettis, Carlyle, Oscar Wilde, Florence Nightingale, (Darwin, Sousa, Reynolds, Landseer, Fenimore Cooper, Ellen Terry, Lord Northcliffo, Sarah Bernhardt, Amundsen, Nansen, Marconi and a host of others. Major Halstead is still busy collecting the autographs at the rate of neatly 1000 a year. When he is not collecting autographs, Major Halstead is continually adding to his collection of coins. Ho has now over 20,000 dating from 575 B.C.