Queen's cousin visits Truro's Royal Cornwall Museum

HRH The Duke of Gloucester, first cousin to the Queen, has visited the newly opened Unwrapping the Past exhibition at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro. As a patron of the British Museum and a Cambridge archaeology graduate, the Duke's enthusiasm for history was clearly apparent as he toured the gallery, asking lots of questions of the staff, volunteers and contractors on hand to greet him. 

The Duke watched with fascination as Oliver Hatfield, from Oh Design, demonstrated how to make a mummy in the exhibition's mummy factory, paused to look at Iset-tayf-nakht's tomb and chatted to Jane Marley, Curator of Archaeology and World Cultures, about various artefacts – including the impressive statue of Sekhmet, on loan from the British Museum.

Volunteer Louise Bearman showed the Duke a dressing up drawer and, with volunteer Barbara Gordon's help, he tried out the audio booth.  After signing the museum's visitor's book on his way out of Unwrapping the Past, he then spent some time looking at other displays – including the very popular Trewinnard Coach, the life size painting of the so-called Cornish Giant Anthony Payne and the Rashleigh Gallery, which houses one of the world's finest mineralogical collections.

"It was a real privilege to have the Duke here, especially as he seemed genuinely interested in everything he looked at," said Georgia Butters, RCM's Head of Development and Communications who was hosting the royal visitor. 

"Developing the Unwrapping the Past exhibition to celebrate the life and times of our mummy Iset-tayf-nakht was a huge team effort and I'm delighted so many of the people involved were able to meet His Royal Highness and chat to him about what all that they've achieved."