Return of urn containing human ashes for burial at Mindelunden i Ryvangen, Denmark
Wellcome Collection has returned an urn containing human ashes to Mindelunden i Ryvangen, a memorial park in Denmark, for burial. The decision follows research and forensic examination into the contents of the urn, which identified the person as Preben Holger Larsen, a member of the Danish resistance who died in Neuengamme concentration camp during World War II.
Sir Henry Wellcome’s Museum Collection is on long-term loan to the Science Museum Group. While a small proportion is on display, much of this collection is cared for at its collection-management facility. In August 2019, a member of staff at Wellcome Collection was researching items in storage and came across a description of an item purported to contain the ashes of a person who died in a World War II concentration camp in 1945. The existence of this urn containing ashes was recorded in the collections catalogue, but no research had been carried out to verify the provenance of the urn and the identity of the person whose ashes it contained.
The provenance research carried out showed that the funeral urn, along with 20 photographs, was first registered by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in 1967 as R27/1967 in register book WA/HMM/CM/Acc/55. This is likely to have been a retrospective registration. It shows that the urn was donated by Mabel Murgatroyd, wife of Frederick Murgatroyd, along with some archival materials (GC/27), which are still held by Wellcome Collection.
We do not know how the urn came into the possession of Frederick Murgatroyd. According to Murgatroyd’s obituary in the British Medical Journal, he was appointed as Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II, and “was one of the first to enter Belsen Camp” after D-Day. His papers record that he remained in Germany until he was released from the army in December 1945. The archive collection includes four photographs, of which two are marked ’Neuengamme’ on the back.
Forensic analysis on the ashes was also carried out to establish the identity of the person and ensure its return to a rightful resting place. These findings indicate that the remains are of one person and are consistent with what we know of the individual named on the label. We are therefore confident that the remains are those of Preben Holger Larsen.
Preben Holger Larsen was arrested in May 1944 for participating in the Danish resistance. His details can be found in the Neuengamme death register, with details that match those on the urn, plus his prisoner number, 50512. Larsen is also listed on the memorial at Ryvangen, the principal cemetery for members of the Danish resistance, as one of 151 Danish freedom fighters whose remains were not found after the end of the war.
Wellcome Collection’s leadership team approved the decision for the urn to be deaccessioned from the Henry Wellcome Museum Collection in November 2021, in line with our deaccessioning procedures, Museum Accreditation standards and in collaboration with the Science Museum Group. There was unanimous agreement that there was no compelling case for retaining the item.
Following this decision, Wellcome Collection and the Science Museum Group worked with the Danish authorities to facilitate the return of Prebend Holger Larsen’s ashes for a respectful burial at Mindelunden i Ryvangen, Denmark. The memorial park has identified and involved Larsen’s descendants in the return of Larsen’s ashes, interred at a memorial ceremony on 29 August 2022.