Watch lost in shipwreck comes home after 165 years

A 165-year-old pocket watch found in an American shipwreck has been returned to its home town in the UK.

The timepiece belonged to Herbert Ingram – a British politician and journalist from Boston, Lincolnshire.

Ingram was recognised for his role in bringing fresh water, gas and the railways to the town, but died during a trip to the US in 1860 when the steamship Lady Elgin sank on Lake Michigan.

Councillor Sarah Sharpe, from Boston Borough Council, said: "The fact that this small part of him is coming back to his home town to be displayed is really special and important."

The pocket watch, its chain and fob was found by divers at the bottom of the lake, in Wisconsin, in September 1992.

But it remained in the US for more than 30 years until it was offered to an archaeologist who was curating an exhibition about the wreck of the Lady Elgin.

Ingram was sailing on the ship with his son when a violent storm broke out on the night of 8 September 1860. The ship collided with another vessel and Ingram was among about 300 people who died.

His body was brought back to Britain, where his legacy has lived on. He was celebrated as the founder of The Illustrated London News, the first illustrated news magazine, and was credited, as MP for Boston, with helping to transform the town into a large industrial centre.

A statue of him stands outside St Botolph's Church – the Boston Stump – overlooking the marketplace.

After the watch was discovered by divers in 1992, its owner was identified as Ingram using initials and manufacturer details.

In October 2024, the divers approached Valerie van Heest, an archaeologist who had conducted a survey of the shipwreck.

They said the watch had belonged to Ingram and offered it to her for an exhibition about the Lady Elgin.

"I very quickly came to the realisation it doesn't belong in America," she said.

"It belongs in Boston where Herbert Ingram was from, where a statue of him still stands."

Ms van Heest contacted the Boston Guildhall museum and later purchased the watch in order to donate it to the town.

"It is physical artefacts that connect us in the present to the past," she said.

"To see a watch which belonged to the man who stands in Boston's town square… I think this is going to draw people in, to wonder who was this man?"

Coincidentally, the Guildhall had been planning an exhibition about Ingram.

Sharpe, the portfolio holder for heritage and culture at Boston council, said she was so surprised when Ms van Heest got in touch that she "couldn't sit down".

"Since then I've been absolutely buzzing," she added. "Herbert Ingram was one of our most influential people."

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