$2.5M From WWII Found Buried in Store Of Winston Churchill’s Old Tailor

Construction workers discovered the bank notes while tearing up old carpet and tiles.

Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill at his seat in the Cabinet Room at No. 10 Downing Street, London, circa 1940. (Cecil Beaton/ IWM via Getty Images)

Several bank notes dating back to World War II, worth $2.5 million in today, have been found under the store of Winston Churchill’s former tailor. The notes were discovered at the location of Cotswold Outdoor Store in Brighton, which was formerly Bradley Gowns, a branch of a London-based furrier frequented by both Churchill and his wife, Lady Clementine. The notes were found by Cotswold Outdoor’s owner, Russ Davis, when construction workers were tearing up old layers of carpet and tiles. He did not realize what he had at first, and told BBC that he thought it was a block of wood, so he snapped it in half and then found one of the notes.

Sussex police now have the bank notes until they figure out who the rightful owner is. It is unclear who buried the money, but Davis suspects it may have been left there “from a bank robbery, or been stashed during the war by someone who died,” according to CNN. 

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