'Incredible' discovery of old passport in Devon school chest

It is unknown how the passport came to be in the possession of the school

A Victorian passport once owned by a renowned artist has been discovered at a school in Devon.

The artefact was found by volunteer archivist Sarah Coe, who is also a student at the University of Plymouth, at Mount Kelly College, in Tavistock.

Sir Charles Lock Eastlake was Royal Academy president from 1850 and the National Gallery's first director.

Dr Susanna Avery-Quash, senior research curator at the National Gallery, said it was "an incredible discovery".

So far, it is unknown how the passport came to be in the possession of the school.

Ms Coe was studying archive material dating back to the college's founder, Admiral Kelly, when she discovered the passport.

"I was going through an old chest of Admiral Kelly's papers one afternoon and it was there I spotted this very old passport stamped with the name Sir C L Eastlake and I immediately researched it," said Ms Coe.

The passport has numerous consular stamps

Plymouth student Sarah Coe discovered the passport in a chest at Mount Kelly College in Tavistock

The passport has numerous consular stamps, many dated 1858, which is when Sir Charles travelled across Europe to inspect works in private and public collections and to purchase works for the National Gallery.

Dr Avery-Quash visited Mount Kelly in person on Friday to collect the valuable artefact for loan to the National Gallery.

She said: "The National Gallery archive already preserves another Eastlake passport so the loan of the Mount Kelly Eastlake passport will happily reunite the two related documents."It will provide us with more information about the fascinating life and work of Sir Charles who was hugely relevant to the Victorian art world and pivotal to the origins and development of the National Gallery, the institution we know and love today."