Australian bookshop owners make priceless historical find
A second hand bookshop in Tasmania, Australia made a one-of-a-kind find recently. The bookstore owners have unearthed a 204-year-old diary from 1811.
Apparently the book had been lying on a pile for years without receiving any attention. Mike Gray, the shop's owner, said: "I thought at first it was worth $20."
It turns out that was a bit of an underestimation, given that the journal originally belonged to Lieutenant-Colonal John Squire. Squire served in John Wellington's army during the Napoleonic wars and the officer was crucial in Napoleon Bonaparte's defeat.
The solider was known for keeping meticulous journals, even sketching diagrams of weapons and tunnels. When he died in 1813, a peer wrote in his journal: "We have lost, in my mind, the best office of the corps, and a man who, I believe, never had an enemy."
After the discovery, the bookshop owners took to Facebook to reveal their amazing find. They wrote: "This little thing has been hiding in our storage cabinet for god knows how many years, until recently discovered by one of our regular customers, whom we allowed to go "digging"... It was someone's old journal from 1811!"
They went on to clarify that the journal appears to cover 12 May to 22 July, detailing the Siege of Badajoz.
They add: "We have NO idea exactly HOW important this little book actually is - and whether it has been sufficiently studied at all. It is a truly unique item."
Although there's currently no word on potential buyers for the historical diary, the bookshop owners said they would contact the Imperial War Museum in London to see whether they were interested.
