Sophie and Jez

Just around the corner from the Science Museum is Imperial College. And today, parked out the front of one of their buildings, was Jezebel, an old London Fire Brigade firetruck which now belongs to the Royal College of Science Motor Club.

She’s a beautiful old reminder of the beginning of the 20th century and is lovingly cared for and continuously repaired by the Club. She can be seen in the London to Brighton Run most years and at various charity events. Having read her history, I don’t think there’s much of the original Jez left but she looks perfect.

Old fire truck

You can read her history here.

But my discovery of new (for me) old things didn’t end there. Apart from my research into all things nautical, I also met Sophie. She is the newest display at the Natural History Museum and greets visitors at the Exhibition Road entrance. She is also 150 million years old (so a bit older than Jez).

Sophie is an 85% (or 90%, depending on the newspaper you read) complete fossil of a stegosaurus, purchased by the NHM a few years ago. She was put together, like a jigsaw without a box lid, by Professor Paul Barrett, lead dinosaur dude, and now stands as if spotting some predator.

I was curious about her name. She is named after Sophie Herrmann. I wondered who this was. Some palaeontologist on the dig? A famous dinosaur expert? The first person to coin the word ‘stegosaurus’. The truth is somewhat more prosaic.

In order to purchase Sophie, the museum asked for donations and the biggest one (which secured the purchase) was from a hedge fund manager called Jeremy Herrmann. His daughter is Sophie Herrmann. I guess being the biggest donor gave him naming rights.

The person who found Sophie in the first place was a palaeontologist called Bob Simon who dug her up in 2003 on a Wyoming ranch. He named the stegosaurus Sarah, after the ranch owner’s daughter. Poor Bob isn’t mentioned on any of the labels at the museum (though, of course, the hedge fund manager is mentioned a number of times) but then all he did was find her. Sarah isn’t mentioned either.

Old lizard