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721 230
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Sat 10am until 1pm
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£1 child. Under 5s free.
Family (2 + 2 ) £6
He left Norfolk and England in 1891 for Egypt, never
really to return to live until the end of his life (he died
in 1939 in London) but would occasionally visit his
family in Swaffham.
Following the ITV drama Tutankhamun ….
What DID Howard Carter have to do with Swaffham?
His grandfather Samuel was born in Great Dunham.
He moved to Swaffham to become gamekeeper at the
Hamond Estate. All of his children were born in Swaffham
and his wife Frances was born in Great Cressingham.
One of his children was Samuel John - a well-known
animal and portrait artist. He married Martha Joyce
Sands, also born in Swaffham. Samuel John, as well as his
father Samuel, his aunts Catherine and Fanny and brother
William are buried in Swaffham church graveyard.
Amongst their 11 or 12 children, some were born in
Swaffham. Howard himself was born in London but
was taken, Howard says “almost immediately to our
house in Swaffham” because of poor health. Here
he spent at least some if not most of his childhood.
We don’t know where or how he was educated
but because of health issues he was “unable to
go through a regular school training.” Two of his
brothers attended Hamond’s Grammar School as
boarders around 1881.
All of the children were taught by their father to draw
and paint and several earned their living as artists.
It was Howard’s brother William who painted the
iconic portrait of Howard.
When Howard needed to earn a living, age 15, he
decided to follow in his father’s footsteps but become
immersed in things Egyptian when he worked with
his father at Didlington Hall near Ickburgh, the home
of Lord and Lady Amherst who owned one of the
biggest Egyptian collection in England at the time.
When in 1917 Lady Amherst was asked if she knew
of a good artist who could copy tomb paintings she
immediately recommended Howard.
19
He never married and was a very private man. Was
there a relationship between Howard and Lord
Carnarvon’s daughter Evelyn? There is absolutely no
evidence; neither tradition, hearsay, written or oral
report. Evelyn, 21 when the tomb was discovered,
was her sick father’s companion in the last years of
his life. She married in 1923.
Howard’s grandfather Samuel also had a son Robert,
a carpenter. Robert married and the couple had a son
Henry. This Henry also married and had a son called
Henry Robert – known to us as Harry Carter who
painted so many East Anglian village signs. Robert
also had a daughter Amelia who married a Mr Ripper.
One of their children was called Benjamin, the local
historian, councillor, artist and barber Ben Ripper.
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Wanted – Volunteers for Stewarding at Swaffham
Museum. Would you be interested in working at the
Museum for 3hrs per week? For more information please
contact Steve Gregory on 01760 721230 or 755596
Swaffham Museum, Town Hall, London Street,
Swaffham PE37 7DQ. Tel: 01760 721 230
www.swaffhammuseum.co.uk