An irreplaceable memorial book from St Luke’s Anglican Church in Toowoomba has been found a month after it was taken from the historic Warrior’s Chapel.
The book, which contains handwritten records of locals who served during World War II, sat in the church since 1941 until last month, when a thief pilfered it from its display case.
The tale of its journey and eventual return to safety has left the community stunned.
Last week parishioner John Standley, who led the campaign to recover the book, said he had all but lost hope of ever getting it back.
Police charged a man over the incident, but the book remained missing until Dr Standley visited his local shopping centre to run an errand.
“On the Thursday I came to the chemist to pick up a prescription, where I had a reception committee,” he said.
“I thought to myself, ‘Now, what is the butcher doing in the chemist shop and why are all the staff looking at me?’
“And then [the butcher] said, ‘Oh, I have a book here’ — and it turned out to be the memorial book.”
The book had been on display for more than 80 years. (ABC Southern Qld: Aisling Brennan)
As the story goes, the trolley collector at the shopping centre in Wilsonton, across town from St Luke’s, found the leather-bound tome sitting on a trolley under the escalators.
“I noticed a big book, I had a look,” Scott Shaw said.
“It looked like a bible, so I just left it there.
“Then, an hour later or so, I thought I’d put it in the back of [the butcher’s] car.”
It was the latest in a long series of practical jokes between Mr Shaw and butcher Cameron Shepherd.
“I thought he could use a bit of Christ in his life,” Mr Shaw said.
The leatherbound ledger was found on a shopping trolley. (ABC Southern Qld: Aisling Brennan)
‘Over the moon’
The memorial book spent about a week in Mr Shepherd’s ute tray until his wife spotted it.
“She said to me, ‘I think this is important,’ and then I found the ‘St Luke’s’ on it,” Mr Shepherd said.
“I was eventually going to give St Luke’s a ring, but I hadn’t — and then I ran into John the next morning.
“That’s when he was over the moon that we’d found it.
“It was good for the community and it was a bit of a funny story at the same time.”
John Standley shows the ledger to Scott Shaw and Cameron Shepherd. (ABC Southern Qld: Aisling Brennan)
Dr Standley said the book was showing a few signs of its adventure.
“The good news is that none of the writing has been defaced, and it’s in good condition,” he said.
“Some of the blank pages have graffiti on them, but we can attend to that.”
He said the book would be sent to an expert for cleaning before being returned to its place in the church.
“The hope is that it can still go back into the original case,” Dr Standley said.
“But somehow the back of the book will be clamped down into the case, so it’s not possible to take it out.”
He said the church was committed to making sure the journey from the chapel to the trolley to the butcher’s ute would be the book’s last for quite some time.