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- A retired admiral who started collecting interesting items from age 9, turned his 65-year passion into a museum.
- The museum has helped raise about R100 000 for cancer funds.
- Items in the museum include an ANC flag from the signing of the Freedom Charter, a Nazi swastika flag, and a Purple Heart medal.
In the military port of Simon's Town there sits a nondescript house with a view of the ocean. In it one of the area's largest private collections of memorabilia resides.
With more than 400 collections in his museum, the rear admiral who owns the museum doesn't ask for entrance fees, but rather donations for cancer and bone marrow foundations.
Since 2011, he has raised over R100 000 for the Sunflower Fund.
Retired Rear Admiral Arne Söderlund's vast collection began in his bedroom in Kimberley at the age of 9.
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In the 65 years since, he has amassed rare items, like an ANC flag from the signing of the Freedom Charter, a Nazi swastika flag, a Purple Heart medal, and what must be the largest collection of airsick bags.
"I've got some interesting stuff, some unique stuff," he says, before revealing that he is currently acquiring a model ship that would be a new addition to his collection.
"Military is only one of my collections. I collect shaving equipment, pots, flags, gazunders (chamber pots), anything of interest."
When visiting Söderlund's collection, one is astounded by the sheer mass of navy uniforms, gramophones, bottles, badges, old Glenfiddich tins, and all manner of trinkets that fill every inch of space which he calls The Den of Antiquity - Junk and Disorderly.
He even has his own "pub", named the Cock and Bull.
Amid the swath of interesting items, an area on a raised platform, almost prestige-like, stands out. A picture of his three daughters sits in colour, whereas most of the other pictures in the room are black and white. There are Sunflower Fund bandanas too.
Söderlund says that one of his daughters was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2011.
"She was one in three million [with that specific diagnosis] and they only had 63 000 [bone marrow donors] in South Africa," but none of them matched hers. They eventually had to look overseas and found three potential donors.
They reached out to the three potential donors from Brazil, the US and Germany.
"One was pregnant, one never replied, and the other had a disease," Söderlund says.
"At that stage, she couldn't take anymore chemo and they sent her home, saying there's not much they could do for her."
Just before the diagnosis, Söderlund says that Christy, his daughter, and her husband had just started a restaurant.
"So for that year, her husband had to struggle to manage the restaurant and their daughter of about 11. It was a very traumatic experience for us."
Eventually, after testing all family members they could and tirelessly searching the world, a stem cell donation was found and Christy received the treatment she needed, "and she survived".
Söderlund says:
After the Sunflower Fund changed its name to DKMS Africa, Söderlund said he decided he would donate the money he received to the South African Bone Marrow Registry instead.
Söderlund does not charge any entry fees for visits to his museum and only asks visitors to donate whatever they can - which is sent to the organisation.
He says that sometimes it's just coins, or like recently, a group of pensioners were there "and left R13.17 in the jar".
He does not sell any items either, even if he has duplicates, but again encourages those people who want to purchase something to donate.
He has also rented out some items for films, like the Purple Heart which was loaned for a donation of R2 500 - sent directly to the fund.
There were also items he loaned out for the Amelia Earhart film, where "the typewriter came back with the paper they used as a prop", he laughs.
Some of the other noteworthy items in his collection include an obituary written by Sol T Plaatje - who was the editor of the Kimberly Native Paper at the time.
It was written for "Captain King or 'Khosi-ke-Nna' (ie I am the chief), as the South African natives used to call him", writes Plaatje - who mourned the loss of William Allan King "who was very popular among both whites and blacks".
There is also a blazer of a certain Gerhard "Gerry" Hamilton Brand, a Springbok who still holds the record for the longest drop-kick ever (77.7m).
Söderlund tells a story of a mother who had the sad task of cleaning out her navy son's belongings after he had died by suicide.
She didn't know what to do with his uniform. She then found out about Söderlund and his collection and wanted to donate it.
He tried to convince her otherwise, but she said it would be best to get closure if her son was remembered in his museum.
"Anybody who has given me stuff, I can tell you exactly who it was and where it's from."
Ever the raconteur, Söderlund has a story for every item one points too and when asked if he has an eidetic memory he says: "Oh god, no. I just live it all."
