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Celebrations as cup comes home
By Maj Phil Pyke
Edition 1174, September 6, 2007 |
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| At journey’s end: Members of 12/40RTR admire the cup first presented for excellence in skirmishing in 1890. Ken Best, front left, travelled to Derwent Barracks to make the presentation. |
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IT’S been a long journey for an historical military trophy since it was first presented in 1890 to a Tasmanian-based militia unit.
After being discovered amongst a rubbish pile and being handed down through two generations of north-west Tasmania families, the Sheffield Cup was finally returned home to 12/40RTR in a recent presentation.
The cup was first presented to the Sheffield Detachment of the East Devon Company in 1890 for excellence in skirmishing by the Tasmanian Commandant, Colonel William Legge.
It remained on display until the Commonwealth took over control of all military forces in the early 1900s and the East Devon Company was disbanded.
As the rooms of the Sheffield Rifle Club, where the Detachment were based, were being cleaned out, the cup was found by two former officers in a pile of rubbish that was destined for the tip.
Maj James Clerke and his brother, Thomas, recognised the cup and took it into their care – declaring that they would take care of it “until someone appreciates it.”
Successive generations of the Clerke and Best families have looked after the cup until they recently made a decision to donate the “military trophy of significance” to the descending unit of the East Devon Company – now 12/40RTR.
Ken Best, the great-nephew of the Clerke brothers, travelled to Derwent Barracks where he presented the Sheffield Cup to the battalion.
He explained how it came into the family with a commitment that the cup was to be one day handed back to the Australian Army.
“It came into our possession but we considered it too valuable a piece of history to be kept in a private home,” Mr Best said.
“A more appropriate place would be the 12/40RTR Museum where it would be treasured and kept as a memorial to the members of the Sheffield Detachment, East Devon Company, who won it.”
CO 12/40RTR Lt-Col Russ Lowes said it was a privilege for the battalion “to receive such an historical trophy that related to a period in Tasmania’s history when the only defence capability the state had were militia units such as the East Devon Company”. |
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