Souvenirs of war

WITH these recent war anniversaries my mind has turned, as nobody else’s probably has, to a different aspect of conflict, a rather more sporting side: pillage and plunder. A skill we Brits developed into a near art form after centuries spent colouring the world map a fetching pink. Anybody who fought us was fair game in the aftermath of defeat and, today, our houses and museums and (especially) regimental messes are full of kit captured in battle or ‘liberated’ afterwards. Nazi helmets and SS daggers, Zulu spears and shields, Indian and Asian swords and guns; our provincial salerooms are full of this lower-grade stuff, some doubtless bought as souvenirs but much of it captured or looted. Even I’ve got some pointy steel killing bits lurking in my study, mementos of a long-ago fisticuffs with rifles and live rounds I once found myself involved in. Likewise, some of the ancient armour and weaponry that comes onto the market was probably, hundreds of years ago, somebody’s battlefield