COLLECTION:Carvings were made mostly from cedar although other materials such as beef bone, and beaten shilling coins were also used. Bermingham's collection includes boxes, paper knives, napkin rings, egg warmers, pens, cups, cigar holders, trick boxes, forks, comb cases and minute pen knives made out of beaten shillings. More than 4,600 Boers, captured by the British during the 1899-1902 Boer War in South Africa, were held prisoner on islands in the Great Sound from 1901. They would often carve their name or initials on the item, sometimes their prisoner number, the prison where they were held, the date the item was carved, and possibly even a message. The Boer carvings were often sold to visitors to Bermuda. The rarest items are carved miniature boots. The Boers would often attach a lever over the boot opening which, when moved, releases a `snake', made either from leather or carved in wood. The Boers inserted pins in the snake's mouth to act as a stinger. Bermingham says the snake in the boot was designed to depict guerilla warfare. "Many of the Boers had farming backgrounds, they lived off the land and they were very good with their hands,'' notes Bermingham. "They would carve little miniature farming items, like a plough, out of cedar, even carving the tiny nails..'' Bermingham buys Boer prisoner pieces at auctions, in antique shops in the US and UK, or through private sale. "The best items are from 1901 because there were few prisoners here then. The pieces from 1902 are the most common, and the ones marked 1903 meant they were carved by "irreconcilables'', prisoners who refused to return to South Africa after their release. Bermingham says about a dozen prisoners stayed on in Bermuda after their release and continued to sell their carvings commercially. "I have one item with the date 1907, and it's marked `Prisoner Of War'. The last POW died here in 1927.'' How it started: Bermingham bought his first pieces in the mid-1970s, while browsing at a church fair at The Manse in Paget. They were paper knives carved in cedar and Bermingham remembers it was the quality of the carvings that he first interested him. "The amount of effort that seemed to go into the carvings was tremendous. They were very intricate.'' When he asked where he could get more information about the carvings, he was told to contact John Davis, a cedar craftsman from Dockyard. Davis was himself a collector of Boer prisoner carvings, and had bought many of his pieces in 1950 from the estates of Recht and Brown. The Recht family came to Bermuda from Germany at the turn of the century and were active in relief work for the Boer prisoners. Bermingham says the prisoners thanked the Rechts by giving them carvings. Bermingham eventually bought Davis' pieces with the promise that he would never break up the collection. Davis died in 1984. Bermingham, a Police superintendent who was born in Portsmouth, England and came to Bermuda 29 years ago, began to gather more information about his carvings by checking the initials on the carvings with a registry of prisoners at Bloemfontein War Museum in the Orange Free State in South Africa. "I was able to track a lot of these men's histories, and learn a little more about them.'' Bermingham says. For instance, one of his carvings was signed by a prisoner named Johnson, but the Museum registry revealed the prisoner's correct surname was, in fact, Jensen.

Further information: For more information about Bermuda's Boer War prisoners, read Boer Prisoners of War In Bermuda by Colin Benbow, available at the Bermuda Library. Interview by Robin Zuill.

Photographs by Stephen Raynor.

Value: "I couldn't put a monetary value on it because they are irreplacable,'' says Bermingham. Once plentiful as tourist souvenirs, the carvings are increasingly harder to come by. Pieces fetch from $100 to $600 at auctions.

1. Paper knife made in Bermuda Cedar and beefbone, circa 1902.

2. Bermuda Cedar walking sticks, crica 1902.

3. Boer mail, dated May 6, 1902.

4. Military boot, carved in pine, circa 1901.

5. Bermuda Cedar pen holder, not dated.

6. Bermuda Cedar box with beefbone inlay, dated April 10, 1902.

RG MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 1993