WW 2 spoon found in an old farm house in the Norwegian forest

Like most people I have drawers full of odds and ends, and some items can go unnoticed for a long time.

Last week I opened one such drawer and an old spoon caught my eyes, it’s a little teaspoon that I had picked up from an abandoned farm house in the middle of a Norwegian forest in 1999. I kept it all these years, and it travelled with me back and forth from Norway to Brazil, then back again, later to the Baltics and back again. Eventually it got forgotten in my little vanity table drawer along with some stray hair pins, buttons and some old notebooks.

I had a few minutes to spare, so idly I googled the markings on the handle. It didn’t take long to learn that it was a British military issued WW 2 spoon, a model that would have been carried by soldiers in combat as part of their kit.

We know that the English had come to the rescue of the Norwegians during the war, so this would have belonged to a British soldier who was sent to Norway some 70 years ago. 

In 1999 I spent six months in Norway, staying with a family who would later become my in-laws (though that is another story). The summer months were lovely and I  ended up with time to spare, so  with a forest behind the house just waiting to be explored,  I often took the children out for long walks. We gave original names to the different places we saw, and even drew  a detailed map of our walking tours.

One day we got a little lost and came across a small clearing in the woods, in the center was an old and partially collapsed house. We went in and looked around, there were magazines from the 60’s, a funny old shoe, some trash and not much more of interest. I picked up this little spoon as a souvenir, and we walked back  home making up stories along the way about what happened there and why it had been abandoned. 

We all had quite a vivid imagination in those days, and had we known that we had found a WW2 item we would have had a lot more fun with the stories and hypothesis we came up with.

I think I would like to return to that old place, and if it is still standing to investigate a little more, maybe there is more to find ? 

Yes, I can locate the place again – but don’t ask….. I won’t tell. 

Original WW2 British army Fork. Makers name and war arrow

Photo of the old farm taken in the winter of 2000

Here is a shop that sells similar items with identical markings:  http://www.sofmilitary.co.uk/ww2-british-army-fork-product,19396