A collection of memorabilia, from the man who served 19 mayoral terms, was presented to Albury Library Museum yesterday.

Alfred and Ellen Waugh were butchers who became famous across the world as leaders of the city that saved the Uiver KLM airliner in 1934.

They carefully kept items, ranging from pictures to the programs for functions they attended, as well as gifts they received in The Netherlands recognising Albury’s role in saving the Uiver.

Solicitor Noel Jackling, who helped secure the Waugh collection for Albury, said the couple was childless and, after Mrs Waugh died in 1956, their possessions passed to relatives at Benalla and Wangaratta.

Recently, Mr Jackling tracked it down to a grand-niece, Patricia Young, of Mount Eliza, who agreed to give it to the city’s heritage collection.

It will join the Dutch medal awarded to Mr Waugh by Queen Wilhelmina. The Albury couple met her in Britain in 1935.

Mr Jackling said Mr Waugh was born at Kennington, London, and arrived in Melbourne with his parents and siblings in 1881. He moved to Corowa and then Albury when he was a young man.

Ellen Waugh, once a dressmaker, learned to cut meat as well as any butcher and was an active partner, especially after 1915 when a damaged hip incapacitated her husband.

From the mid-1920s, he walked bowler-hatted to council meetings and other functions with the aid of crutches.

He was holding them when photographed with the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, at the Albury station in 1927.

Mr Waugh was an alderman from 1905 to 1948, apart from one short break, and mayor 19 times between 1907 and 1938.

Also in Mrs Young’s gift is his apron from the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows and a Christmas card from NSW governor Sir Philip Game.

Mrs Waugh’s items include dresses and her spectacles.

Many Uiver items will also be added.