Sinel, Joseph William
Gebel Moya archaeological worker c.1913. WHMM museum assistant, c.1919-1921
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Gebel Moya archaeological worker c.1913. WHMM museum assistant, c.1919-1921
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Born 1870 in St. Helier, Jersey. Died 31 July 1927 in St. Helier, Jersey. Married Mabel Florence de Gruchy (1875 - ?)
William Joseph Sinel had a background as an archaeologist and naturalist. He was originally appointed c.1913 to do archaeological work at Wellcome's Gebel Moya excavations, aged around 43. He was recommended for the post by the ethnologist (1866-1943), who knew Sinel's father (1844-1929), an established archaeologist working in the Channel Islands. According to Marett's letter of recommendation to Henry Wellcome, the younger Sinel was not formally trained in archaeology but had lots of practical experience from working with his father and was "a perfect devil for finding things". He was described as a "fanatical naturalist by profession" with a "great hand for preparing museum specimens, photographs, etc." (, WA/HMM/CO/Ear/306).
It's not clear how many seasons William Joseph Sinel spent at Jebel Moya on Wellcome's excavations. Archive correspondence indicates that in 1915 he was back in England receiving medical treatment of quinine and prescribed rest, perhaps for malaria (, WA/HMM/CO/Ear/319).
Sinel was hired as a museum assistant at WHMM after the First World War, some time in 1918 or 1919. His work in the museum included cataloguing and registering museum objects. Accession register 5 contains some notes by him, initialled 'J.W.S.' (WA/HMM/CM/Acc/5, one in a , and another dated December 1919 ).
Sinel also made purchases at auction sales on behalf of the museum. A few Stevens auction sale catalogues dated Jan and March 1921 are annotated by him: According to John Symons (), Sinel was made redundant from WHMM in 1921. Museum assistant posts were no longer desired once the staff had finished retrospectively cataloguing all objects on display. WHMM curator C.J.S. Thompson hoped that Sinel would return to working in Jebel Moya when excavations resumed and asked Marett about short-term employment opportunities for him in the meantime. However the Jebel Moya excavations did not resume and Sinel sought another post. Sinel's last letter to Thompson in February 1921 states he had applied for a curator post at a private museum in Birchington, Kent.
Sinel's work after leaving WHMM hasn't been easy to track down. According to Jersey register office records he died in 1927, aged 57, while resident in St. Helier.
appointment as archaeologist in Jebel Moya, 1911-13 (page images 10-13)
correspondence, 1915
staff file, Aug 1919-Feb 1921
Symons 1993, pages , (inc. a note on pronouncing the name Sinel: "short i, stressed on second syllable")
(Jersey Heritage)