Napoleon's hair found in Sydney basement

A few strands of hair purportedly clipped from the head of Napoleon Bonaparte on his deathbed have been found in the basement of Sydney Town Hall in Australia. No one knows how the imperial relic found its way to Sydney, more than 13,000 kilometres from where the French emperor died in Saint Héléna in 1821.

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The light brown lock was recovered when the Town Hall recently cleared out its vaults for renovations.

It was found with an accompanying letter, in which a Scotsman named Ned Todd claims that he was given the hair by a woman whose brother, one Major William Crockat, had been present at Napoleon's death.

"If I mistake not she said that her brother had himself cut the lock from the head of the illustrious dead," Todd writes.

While the hair cannot be confirmed as genuine until genetic tests have been performed, Todd's story seems to fit with the known circumstances of Napoleon's death.

Napoleon's hair is known to have been shorn and distributed shortly after he died, according to historian Margaret Betteridge, who has curated an exhibition of other rare finds recovered from Sydney Town Hall's archives.

There is also a painting of the deathbed scene that depicts Major Crockat with Napoleon as he expires, Betteridge said.

There are no clues yet as to how the hair ended up in the City of Sydney's possession, but Betteridge is looking forward to investigating.

''I don't want it to be a fait accompli,'' she told the Sydney Morning Herald. ''It's nice to have a story that unfolds.''