ALBERT the Albatross is celebrating his 100th birthday as a conspicuous feature of the Worcester Museum display in Foregate Street.

This magnificent stuffed specimen of the Wandering Albatross, a giant bird of the Southern oceans, was given to Worcester way back in 1902 and still graces its original showcase with its 8ft 5in wing span. It has now been a source of amusement and fascination to generations of City Museum visitors for exactly a century.

But even after all this time, there's still a big mystery surrounding Albert and one that the museum staff, particularly collections officer Garston Phillips would dearly like to solve:

Who, without doubt, was the person who donated the stuffed bird to the museum, and are any of his descendants still alive?

Garston tells me that, down the years, museum staff have tried to find out how Albert, a bird totally alien to Britain and especially to inland Worcester, came to the Faithful City. Extensive inquiries have taken in London, Hereford, Carlisle, New Zealand and even Newfoundland, but still without really conclusive proof.

"Our only lead was an old label stating that this young male Wandering Albatross was presented by Mr Percy Brown of RMS Waimate - but who was he and what was his connection with Worcester?

"Enquiries at the Maritime Museum eventually revealed that RMS Waimate had been a cargo and passenger vessel launched in 1896 and owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company. It regularly journeyed between England and New Zealand and had refrigerator space for 90,000 carcasses which answers the question we had pondered for years - how could this huge bird have travelled so far without showing any signs of deterioration before at last arriving in Worcester?

"Once here, its preservation was carried out by the museum curator of the time, Mr W Edwards, who also happened to be a first class taxidermist. The showcase for Albert, which he still graces, was made by a local carpenter, WW Hunt of South Quay, at a cost of £10."

Garston says the next bit of detective work involved inquiries of the Maritime Historic Archive at the Memorial University of Newfoundland where research revealed that a P Brown had been registered as a refrigerator engineer for three voyages between 1900 and 1902, when the Waimate travelled between London and New Zealand via South Africa.

Brown's entry in the Waimate crew list of 1901, supplied by the Newfoundland university, was "P. Pryce Brown, aged 32, born in Hereford and with a home address of Notting Hill, London".

Garston says the Record Office at Hereford was then contacted and found an entry for a Percy Brown, aged 12, of the Holmer district of Hereford in the 1881 Census returns.

"This would make him the right age of 32 when he went on his voyage of 1901 with the Waimate - but is this the same man who presented Albert to the museum?

"Even after all our extensive inquiries, we still have no idea what was Percy Brown's connection with Worcester and why he brought Albert here," says Garston.

However. there has been a very recent development - the tracing of Percy Brown's birth certificate - which offers a further tantalising piece of information. Percy's father was a Hereford man but his mother came from Worcester and had the maiden name of Brock.

"Percy's father had died by 1881, so could it be that sometime afterwards the family moved from Holmer to Worcester," asks Garston.

n Can Memory Lane readers throw further light on Percy Brown and his connection with Worcester and tell us whether any of his descendants are still to be found?

If you can help, please contact either Mike Grundy at the Evening News or e-mail www.worcestercitymuseums.org.uk