FREE ARTICLE: Hiding the Crown Jewels, 1941
A short one today, but interesting. A few years ago, I was asked if I knew about a rumour that the Crown Jewels were stored in a biscuit tin and hidden from the Nazis in WW2. I hadn't, but of course, this sounded like an excellent rabbit hole to go chasing…
A week before Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, work had already begun at Windsor Castle: sandbagging, fitting gas-proof doors and removing valuable works of art from their frames. The Crown Jewels had arrived on site, brought down from the Tower of London on the evening of Saturday, 26th August and were placed in the keeping of Sir Owen Morshead; the commander of a local Home Guard unit who was in the middle of a thirty tenure as Royal Librarian at Windsor. For nearly two years, he would live nervously with the knowledge that these priceless symbols of the British monarchy were locked in a vault underneath his study.
The Imperial State Crown, with the Black Prince’s Ruby featured (Wikipedia)
Prior to the summer of 1940, a highly secret arrangement was posed. Only four people knew of it at the time: King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Morshead and a Mr Mann. The latter represented the House of Garrard, the longest operating jewellers in the world, who had received their first royal commission in 1735 and have provided the Royal Family with jewels ever since. The suggestion discussed was that when Lord Athlone, the King’s uncle, departed for Canada to become Governor General in June 1940, he would carry with him copies of some of the Crown Jewels for their “safe-keeping” from any Nazi invasion. It was ultimately decided though, that there was the possibility that the ship the mock relics were on might be sunk, in which case the moral effect of supposedly losing the Crown Jewels when word got out would be catastrophic. So they decided against it.
The King was still not comfortable with their location or their safety. On his instruction, Morshead summoned Mann and the two began taking apart the Crown Jewels. They selected about a dozen of the most significant stones. These included the Koh-i-Noor, one of the largest cut diamonds in the world; pieces of the Cullinan, the largest rough diamond every found, from which nine stones had been cut and placed in various pieces over time; and the Black Prince’s ruby, which he had demanded from Don Pedro of Seville in 1366 after helping him put down a rebellion by his illegitimate brother. Whilst most of the stones popped out of their fittings with ease, Morshead and Mann had to sever four joints holding a large stone from the Cullinan set in the front of the Imperial State Crown. Morshead wrapped the stones in cotton-wool and placed them inside a tall glass jar. Inside he also placed a note signed by King George VI to say that this “had been carried out at his personal direction, and that it was his wish that nobody had been told.” Morshead then placed the jar inside a Bath Oliver biscuit tin and sealed the lid with surgical tape. Back into the vault below his study it went, on the premise that the most valuable of the Crown Jewels were now easily transportable, low-key. If it came to the worst, and everything else was lost, these items could be extracted quickly and would later form the nucleus for a new set of jewels.
There were three Sally Ports; alternative, hidden entrances, underneath the Windsor Castle complex. By the beginning of 1914 the King and Queen were having one that ran underneath the south side of the buildings surrounding the Quadrangle utilised as the basis for a pair of strong rooms underneath the castle grounds in which to store the Royal Family’s most valuable treasures. Accessed by a trap door in an “obscure little room,” in between the York and Lancaster Gate and the Sovereign’s Entrance, the steeply inclined shaft lay at the bottom of a twelve foot ladder. Prior to 1780, the 80 yard route had, for a reason that nobody could fathom, debouched into the moat. Now, two thirds of the way along, two large caverns; one on each side, were being excavated. Accessed by a wide, temporary shaft that would be filled in on completion, piles of brilliant white chalk were being dragged out to make 12 feet by 8 feet rooms with 35 feet of earth above them. At a cost of about £1200 they were being reinforced by thick concrete and steel rails. At night the spoil was concealed by black tarpaulin until lorries could carry it away. To the relief of Morshead, on the afternoon of 6th May 1941, the vaults were complete and the Crown Jewels were removed from his vault and placed in the new sally port strong rooms, where they remained concealed until the end of the war.