What happened to Wivenhoe’s WW1 War Trophies?

 

Example of a WW1 Machine Gun (photo taken at the Imperial War Museum)

Photo by Peter Hill

From the Wivenhoe Urban District Council Minutes 1916-1919 held at the Essex Record Office [Ref:D/UWvM1/6]

p. 353 Meeting held 10 February 1919:

The Deputy Clerk reported the arrival from the OIC 10th Essex Regt. of a German Machine Gun presented by him to this District as a war trophy.

p357 meeting 10 June 1919:

The council . . . resolved to accept from the War Office a German Machine Gun Ammunition Box + belt.

Investigations show that there is no record of the Ordnance in Wivenhoe today and Colchester museums also have no record.

When the Wivenhoe History Group visited the Essex Regiment Museum in Chelmsford in early 2015, the curator said that most local councils received WW1 trophies and that their size corresponded to the amount the particular council had contributed to the WW1 war effort. Most such trophies were handed back to the War Ministry after an appeal for recyclable commodities towards the WW2 war effort.