The White Tower in Thessaloniki

 The White Tower was built in 1431 by Venetian workmen for the Turks, who, under Murad II, having just possessed themselves of the town. It is not as ancient as the city walls or the citadel in the upper part of the town, but it became part of the defence circuit. Salonika in those days was a city of the dead; so many of its inhabitants had fled, been slain or sold into captivity. So the newly built White Tower witnessed the arrival of some 20,000 Jewish emigrants from Spain to repopulate the devastated city. It also witnessed many scenes of terror for many Turks imprisoned there were executed on the spot. It earned the name 'The Tower of Blood' or 'Bleeding Tower'. Executions were carried out on its summit in full view of the crowd and the blood of the victims was spattered on the ramparts and flecked the sides of the tower in crimson lines. During the Salonika Campaign the old citadel was peaceable enough, and provided Navy signallers a good observation post, though one wonders if this was somewhat nullified by the army of Salonika spies. Anyway our signallers kept chickens on the roof, while students of archaeology will remember that some of the rooms provided a temporary home for objects of antiquity found by Allied soldiers. For a time two sentries, one English one Greek, guarded its entrance.' Mosquito March 1967

'The Tower was no longer white nor was it a prison but now housed a restaurant used by the Allied forces as an Officer's club. A strange mixture of uniforms gathered there, each imbibing his alcoholic preference and showing his feelings according to his national origin. The French were fairly quiet, it being early in the evening, but each with his bottle of wine and rising spirits that would be heard from later when the cognac time came. The Italians were colourful, gesticulating and well on in their wine drinking and full of melody. The British were reserved, talked softly and looked down their noses at everyone else. The real actors were the Russian Officers, With nothing else to do they had started early and were well along the Vodka trail. They were singing at the top of their voices and stamping their feet in time. Every now and then one of them would hop to his feet and put on a dance - typically Slavic with much stamping and leaping in the air.'Private Papers of Wing Commander W S Lighthall DFC, IWM Documents.4548

                                     The White Tower in WWI

Lt Ernest Gardner, a Professor of Classical Archaeology and member of British School of Athens before the war and during Gardner served in Intelligence in Salonika, also serving in the Royal Navy. 

An agreement that Greek Antiquities laws were upheld and working closely with the Greek authorities, Gardener British and French forces were to take responsibility on behalf of the Ephor of Byzantine Antiquities.

Although British and French forces were subject to the same agreement, the archaeological activities were divided between the British and French zones (so both zones were kept separate from the other).

The BSF Museum was located in the White Tower which was already being used as a signalling station  and a garden.

The BSF Museum involved a number of archaeologists who were serving in the army and navy and despite their expertise none of the archaeologists were appointed to archaeological work full time, whereas the French archaeologists committed to archaeology on a larger scale.  Therefore the British fitted in any archaeology, collecting and transporting objects to the BSF and White Tower and cataloguing and studying, in and around their military duties. Their military duties had nothing in common with their special duties, for example Lieutenant T.E. Peet  was detailed to count empty petrol tins, Lt Gardner’s duties in intelligence and translations and observing Greek press and Major A.G. Wade combined his job as Landing Officer and counter-espionage activities

Their training rendered them thoroughly capable of weighing, sifting and co-ordinating evidence and deducing accurate conclusions, but the British could not start new excavations (as the French had) and the finds were made during the course of digging trenches and fortifications.

Lt Gardener in his spare time showed people around the museum in the White Tower and also went on drives around Thessaloniki and around the British Zones to follow up reports or finds  securing permissions to remove these antiquities from the sites.  Lt Gardener wanted to clear anything that was outside the ‘above ground’ remit

The most high profile find was by the Scots Fusiliers near Liti (north of Thessaloniki)

A Roman inscription recording of Manius Sabinus Salarious which was kept in Thessaloniki these were regarded as being of particular interest to the history of the region in supplying the Emperor Hadrian’s army and brought to the White Tower.

Lt Gardner seems to have initiated a collecting policy for a museum in Thessaloniki which included both archaeological remains and comparative materials from elsewhere.  Major Wade, who took over from Gardner in 1917 viewed the collection as a more narrowly British concern and wanted the collection to come to England rather than remain and participate in Thessaloniki history.

The Greeks were unhappy about the collection being shipped to Britain, but the collection was packed in 29 crates and loaded on to a ship in September 1919.

It is perhaps surprising that there is only a handful of Byzantine sherds in the BSF Museum collection and no icons, this could be seen as an indication of the difference in priorities between the classical archaeologists in the British and French armies?

It is also likely that valuable icons remained in the hands of the local Greek populations even if they were forced to move from villages on the front line and some may have been destroyed in the wars.