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photo of Harold Llewellyn Twite's mud-encrusted Wristwatch

Harold Llewellyn Twite's Wristwatch (Unknown Maker) and Personal Belongings

Encrusted in Somme mud, this First World War officer's watch was frozen in time at the moment he died when a German mine exploded. This mud-encrusted timepiece was frozen in time at 8pm on December 1915, the exact moment Harold Llewellyn Twite was killed in action in Northern France.

His comrades returned his belongings back to his widow Lucy Muriel Twite of Surrey, England UK. However, she could not bear to open the parcel and they were only discovered 99 years later by their grandson David Chilcott. David Chilcott found these items just this year and has donated them to the St Agnes Museum in Cornwall, in Lieutenant Twite's home village.

After his death, Lieutenant Twite's surviving comrades scoured the French frontline where he fought to gather his kit bag, letters, binoculars and other belongings.

Harold Llewellyn Twite's kit bag, smoking pipe and binoculars

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