The National Museum of the Royal Navy Joined ‘The ONE Show’ For Their Christmas Celebrations!
Eagle-eyed viewers of BBC’s ‘The One Show’ on Friday 23rd December would have seen The National Museum of the Royal Navy at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard joining in the Christmas celebrations alongside presenters Chris Evans and Alex Jones and guests David Jason and Bear Grylls, as resident food expert Jay Rayner proudly displayed the museum’s Christmas Pudding, thought to be ‘the world’s oldest’!
The Christmas pudding dated 1900 and sent to the Naval Brigade during the Boer War was given to The National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN), last year, after having been left in the back of a food cupboard for years.
The decorative tin appeared on the show in all the glory you can expect from a 111 year old plum pudding. Despite clearly showing signs of age the message can still be read: “For the Naval Brigade, In the Front, With Miss Weston’s Best Christmas & New Year, 1900, Wishes.”
Miss Weston is of course Miss Agnes ‘Aggie’ Weston, known as the Mother of the Navy, devoted friend of sailors, superintendent of the Royal Naval Temperance Society and ultimately founder of the Royal Naval Sailors’ Rests at Devonport and Portsmouth. Shortly before her death she was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1918 and was buried with full naval honours.
Miss Weston’s values are carried through in every detail on the front of the pudding label: “Peek, Frean & Co’s Teetotal Plum Pudding - LONDON, High Class Ingredients Only”. The other side of the tin is an illustration in an Oliver Twist style showing children holding out their plates.
The label also carries the following instructions: “This pudding is ready for use but may be boiled for an hour if required hot.”
Richard Noyce, Curator of Artefacts at the NMRN, accompanied the pudding on its journey to the London studios and had the pleasure to meet everyone on the show: “We were thrilled to be invited to bring our Christmas pudding onto The ONE Show and to not only have it discussed by the presenters and fantastic guests, but to showcase it to millions of viewers. In the everyday life of a curator you come across many gems but you don’t expect to be rubbing shoulders with a national treasure such as David Jason!”
The pudding is now back on display at the museum in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, along with some WWI and WWII navy rations including an orange and some chocolate, as well as a more recent Christmas box sent to the Navy on operations in Iraq.
