CROMWELL’S HEAD

Evening Star, Issue 20053, 19 December 1928, Page 9

CROMWELL’S HEAD

STILL PRESERVED IN LONDON. A correspondence regarding the lacial appearance of Oliver Cromwell recently ran in the columns of the ‘ Sunday Times,’ London, having been initiated by a gentleman who wished particularly to learn the truta about tho shape of the Protector's nose. Later Evelyn L. Tew 'wrote as follows: “None of your correspondents seem to know that the “embalmed head of Oliver Cromwell” is in existence and in the possession of the family of the late Horace Wilkinson. I have myself seen it on more than one occasion. It is never publicly shown, but as a friend of the Wilkinson family i have taken people to see it from lime to tjne. Cromwell’s hair never turned white. The brown chestnut hair is still seen and the growth of beard on the chin, as for th* last few months he went in fear of his life and refused to be shaved. All the documents about this relic are with the. head, and some time next year I am hoping' to be allowed to arrange for a lecture on the subject, when they will be read in full and pictures of the head shown. The heed fell down from Westminster Hall twenty-live years after it had. been there, and was taken home by a sentinel, it shows the iron spike on which it had been put, os .. broke oil below the head. It shows also two cuts where it was hacked off at Tyburn, which fits in with the historical accounts of the time.”