Here is one of the more unusual items in our collection, a petrified/dehydrated lemon that is over 100 years old!

 

This lemon was thrown overboard from the troopship HMNZT Tahiti onto the wharf at Wellington in October 1914, just before the ship embarked overseas as part of the Main Body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force at the start of World War I. It was thrown by 7/404 Lance Corporal Neil Taylor, who would go on to serve with the Canterbury Mounted Rifles at Gallipoli. Taylor’s war service would be cut short, however, after he was shot in the foot at Walker’s Ridge on 31 May 1915. After recovering from his injury and returning to New Zealand, Taylor was discharged from service in April 1916. The lemon later came into the possession of Taylor’s nephew who, after holding onto this strange item for many years, donated it to the National Army Museum in 1985. 

Photo Credit:
1987.1020 Petrified Lemon, World War I. National Army Museum Te Mata Toa.