AddThis SmartLayers

News editor thanks stranger for ‘return’ of family memorabilia

A regional daily news editor has thanked a “complete stranger” who found and returned a special cup bearing his grandfather’s name.

Martin Shaw, of the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, had scoured the internet for years searching for memorabilia relating to Herbert Farrar Shaw, who served as Mayor of Dewsbury in the 1930s.

Martin never met his grandfather, but last year wrote a piece for the Examiner about a visit to Dewsbury Town Hall where he came face-to-face with his grandfather’s photograph in the mayor’s parlour.

Out of the blue Martin received an e-mail from a complete stranger telling him she had something that ‘belonged’ to him.

Martin with the cup

Martin with the cup

Jane Sorby, of Loughborough, in Leicestershire, told him she had in her possession a cup produced in 1935 to celebrate the silver jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary which she had inherited from her mother-in- law, who had family in Yorkshire.

On the bottom of the cup was a coat of arms and the words ‘County Borough of Dewsbury Councillor H F Shaw J.P. Mayor’, whose name she then searched for online – which led to her reading Martin’s piece.

After making contact, she then posted it to Martin free of charge.

He told the Examiner: “It was amazing to receive the e-mail out of the blue and lovely that someone was prepared to go out of their way like that.

“Though I never met my grandfather I’ve always felt a connection to him and while I doubt this cup is unique – there were probably hundreds made for schoolchildren at the time – it’s a priceless link to the past.”

One comment

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.