The deadly curse behind Aussie brothers’ ill-fated treasure hunt

A tragic fate awaited two rich Aussie adventurers on a quest to find one of the world’s most sacred treasures.

Clarence Wilson, born in St Kilda in Melbourne, was one of the adventurers on an expedition to find the lost Ark of the Covenant in 1909-1911 in Jerusalem.

While two rich Aussie adventurers dug for the sacred Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem, a deadly biblical curse was hanging over their heads.

Brothers Gordon and Clarence Wilson set out on a real-life Raiders of the Lost Ark expedition to find the gold-plated chest that was believed to contain two stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, received by Moses from God on Mount Sinai.

The daring tale is told in the final episode in a two-part series in the In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters:

The story of the brothers and their treasure hunt in 1909-11 is told in a new book called Raiders of the Hidden Ark, by UK author Graham Addison.

Adventurers and archaeologists continue to this day to hunt around the world for the powerful biblical artefact, which featured in the 1981 Steven Spielberg adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark and has been missing for 2500 years.

The Ark as depicted in adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The Parker expedition searched for the long-lost Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem.

Graham says the Wilsons’ expedition was formed after Finnish biblical scholar Valter Juvelius convinced a group of Eton-educated men from wealthy and titled families that he had discovered secret cyphers hidden in the Bible revealing the location of the Ark.

“It was an incredible adventure, largely forgotten,” Graham says.

“It captivated me, the idea of these upper-class largely Englishmen, but Australians as well as we’ve found out, and secret cyphers. It just seems so mad.”

The brothers were born in Victoria and were the sons of Sir Samuel Wilson, one of the wealthiest Australians who ever lived. The Wilson family heavily funded the expedition.

Gordon Wilson once thwarted an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria when he was a schoolboy at Eton, by bashing the gunman over the head with his umbrella.

The expedition sailed to Jerusalem on Clarence Wilson’s private yacht to begin the search for the Ark, which was believed to hold the power to kill people.

Clarence Wilson was born in St Kilda.

Gordon Wilson thwarted an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria.

The Parker expedition, with Clarence Wilson at far right, searched for the long-lost Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem.

The Dragon’s Shaft in Jerusalem, where the Parker expedition searched for the Ark.

Graham says the expedition believed the Ark to be worth an estimated 40 million pounds, or the equivalent of about $AUD7.5 billion today.

The expedition stoked the embers of religious disharmony in Jerusalem, sparking riots when it was discovered they were secretly digging in the sacred and religiously contentious Dome of the Rock, after bribing officials to gain access.

While the foreigners fled on Clarence Wilson’s yacht, a number of local expedition members were arrested, including their translator.

“They threw them into jail, tortured them to try to extract confessions out of them,” Graham says.

According to Juvelius, the cyphers he “discovered” also revealed there was a curse on anyone who tried to obtain the Ark.

Newspaper article about the search for the Ark.

Samuel Wilson, father of Clarence and Gordon, was one of the richest Australians who ever lived.

Raiders of the Hidden Ark

Graham Addison, author of Raiders of the Hidden Ark.

One newspaper story was headlined, “What tragic fate awaits the Ark’s robbers?”

“Whether you believe in curses or not … many of them suffered very tragic, unfortunate, short lives,” Graham says.

“The first person to suffer was Clarence Wilson, and that happened whilst he was still in Egypt trying to get the expedition back to Jerusalem. And he went mad. He had a mental breakdown, and he was of unsound mind for the rest of his life.”

Gordon Wilson commanded a regiment in World War I and was killed in November, 1914, a few weeks after and close to where another expedition member, an aristocrat, was killed.

Another expedition member went bankrupt; others were divorced.

A third Wilson brother, Herbert, who helped finance the expedition and was a 1908 Olympic gold medallist, was also killed in WWI.

“And Juvelius, who came up with the cyphers, died of cancer very shortly afterwards,” Graham says.

The house the Parker expedition stayed in near the excavations while searching for the Ark of the Covenant.

“I personally don’t believe in curses, but it’s strange that so many of them were affected so quickly after the expedition.

“If you take the four Wilson brothers, one died in the Boer War, two died in the First World War, and Clarence Wilson went mad.”

Listen to the interview about the Wilson brothers and the search for the Ark of the Covenant with Graham Addison in the In Black and White podcast on iTunes, Spotify or web.

See In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.