King's Own Royal Regiment Museum

The museum is supported by Lancaster City and Lancashire County Councils.

Overview

Whilst this Annual Report tends to look back on a busy year of activities in the museum, it is also a chance to look forward. The museum continues from strength to strength, but there are limitations in what can be achieved. The two major limiting factors are time and money. The Curator and Trustees always have plenty of ideas, some more ambitious than others, which will all take money and time to see to fruition. It is now harder than ever to raise money and bodies such as the Heritage Lottery Fund are much more demanding in the way projects are run and managed, and it is not always possible, as a small Regimental Museum, to achieve their ambitious targets. That said, the Curator is always keen to work with external bodies to raise the funds and achieve more, whether that’s an acquisition of a collection of medals or a new and exciting way to tell the Regiment and Soldiers story to a new audience. Whilst the odd £50,000 donation would achieve fantastic things, the smaller donation of a few hundred can also be significant in the impact it can have.

The demand for the Regimental Museum remains and has not diminished in the decades since the King’s Own Royal Regiment amalgamated. People still come through the door to look, ask questions and bring fantastic items to be added to the collection. More than ever our collections are being used by people across the world via our website and email.

The museum still carries on the work which was the vision of the founders in the 1920s, I sincerely hope that Mr Bland, Colonels Cowper, Keith, Carter and others would look on and be impressed with what we do.

Trustees

The Museum Trustees met in November and welcome Mr and Mrs Caveliero to the meeting who presented the letters of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Bevan to the Curator for addition to the museum’s collection.

The Chairman spoke on the role of the museum, set against a world of change in both local and national government as well as the recent Strategic Defence Review.
Colonel John de Cordova resigned as a trustee after over two decades of service to the museum. His service was recognised by his appointment as the First Honorary Vice President of the King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum.

Major Steve Firth MBE and Mr John Hardy were elected unanimously as new trustees.

Charity Statement of Purpose and Public Benefit.

The King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum provides a ‘living’ history of the character, activities, tradition and history of the British Army and in particular The King’s Own Royal Regiment, Lancaster. This is achieved through the preservation, interpretation and display of artefacts, archives etc for the purposes of historical research, information and education and the enjoyment of the general public.

Environmental Statement

The King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum is committed to do what it can to reduce our impact on the environment. Where possible the museum uses recycled materials, and certainly great effort is made to re-use envelopes for both correspondence and sales, this also saves money. We re-use paper, use recycled paper, and recycle all sorts of waste material from paper and cardboard to tin cans and glass. Writing and printing on the back of paper is such a simple way to minimise on waste. Public transport is used where possible and of course the curator is a keen cyclist.

The Energy Performance Operational Rating of the City Museum building is 53, which rates the museum as ‘C’. ‘A’ being the most efficient, ‘G’ being the worst, and a rating of 100 would be typical for our type of building. (Certificate Reference Number: 0880-0810-6149-5426-3002).

Acknowledgements

It is never possible to acknowledge and thank everyone who has helped the King’s Own Museum over the year in this report, but some assistance is above and beyond and needs specific mention. Grateful appreciation goes (in no specific order) to Pat and David Shackleton; Gaynor Greenwood; Elspeth Griffiths; Howard Martin; Christopher and Gail Knight; Army Heritage Branch for the kind gift of the digital recorder for oral history projects; Major Max Davison, Officer Commanding King’s Division Training Team; Colour Sergeant Steve Bowman, 4th Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment; Major Simon Walton, Quartermaster, 1st Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment; WO1 Darren Szymanski, 3rd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment; WO1 Neil Barnett, Garrison Sergeant Major, Fulwood Barracks, Preston; Corporal John Redmond, 1st Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment; Corporal Scott Little, 1st Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment; Martin Evans and Jackie Britton for their continued support and provision of a London base for the curator’s southern operations!

Collections Management

Despite the many pressures on the Curator’s time work does take place on the collections. Further and more in-depth documentation has taken place. Various collections of papers previously recorded with a single line entry have been expanded into a reference for each individual item. Colonel William Carter DSO MC’s papers now number over 200 separate entries. This allows for great awareness of the full collection, especially once all the details have been added to our website.

New items, when received, are also carefully documented and carefully stored prior to ensure they are held in the best conditions possible. Stocks of acid-free boxes and polyester envelopes remain healthy from the large purchase made of stocks in the previous year.

The curator continues to monitor and take care of the collections, whether they are held in store or on display. A regular programme of inspection takes place to ensure everything is well cared for.

Finance

Whilst sales remain healthy in both the museum shop and by post there is a continued decline in donations received, especially in response to enquiries. The museum does not make a charge for enquiries, however we suggest a donation is made. We suggest a donation of at least £10 is a reasonable contribution to the cost of answering an enquiry. The curator includes a request for a donation in the body of the text of an email and each page of the museum’s website request support. Donations may be made on line by those who have a ‘Paypal’ account. The cost, to the museum, of receiving a ‘Paypal’ donation is minimal and less than the cost of a credit card transaction.

Fundraising continues to be one of the hardest, and most unpredictable, tasks.

The museum received no legacies in this financial year. Information on legacy giving can be requested from the Curator. Any legacy, no matter who small, can help the future development and continued work of the museum.

Enquiry donations & other fundraising £1777.95
Public Donation Box (in gallery) £284.03

Grants Received, 2010-11:
Heritage Lottery Fund (General Sir Archibald Hunter acquisition) £2066.99
Friends of Lancaster City Museum (Mayson Medallion acquisition) £500.00
CBC Charitable Trust £500.00

No money was claimed from the Inland Revenue under the ‘Gift Aid’ Scheme in this financial year. A claim for 2009/10 and 2010/11 will be made in the next financial year, and included Gift Aid from the Sponsored Cycle ride the total will be just under £1000.

The museum encourages all donors, who meet the rules, to make a Gift Aid donation, allowing the museum to reclaim the tax that has been paid on the amount, presently 25p for every £1 donated.

A full statement of accounts for the year will be presented at the Trustees Meeting, November 2011 and once approved will be submitted to the Charity Commission.

Publications

The museum continues to provide historical information, photographs & illustrations etc to authors and researchers undertaking projects or writing books. Two titles of note this year have been:

The Curator has continued to contribute articles to the Nostalgia pages of the Lancaster Guardian. This has included:

One of the things the Curator was involved with was the BBC’s Match of the Day World Cup coverage in South Africa. Football was put to one side and the story of the Boer War 110 years previous was told.
Des Lynam, writing in The Daily Telegraph of 6th July 2010, commented on the coverage:
“…Well, leading contender for television performer of the World Cup must be Lawro [the BBC’s Mark Lawrenson] himself….
Then suddenly in one programme we had Lawrenson as David Starkey. He visited Spion Kop, the scene of a famous battle during 1900 during the Second Boer War where the British suffered dreadful casualties and it all ended in disaster. It was a brilliant piece of tele-journalism. The history was clearly explained with mentions of a young Winston Churchill, who was a courier during the battle, and Ghandi, the future great leader of India, who was a stretcher-bearer.
And the link was explained between those Spion Kops at various football grounds in memory of the battle, not least the most famous of all at Anfield, where Lawrenson enjoyed his best playing days. In my ignorance I had been unaware of the connection. He presented and narrated the story in exemplary fashion and it was very moving”
An example of just one of the many things that the museum gets involved with, but where acknowledgement and credit is rarely given!

A range of information sheets and publications are made available to visitors on the history of the King’s Own. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission also kindly supply a range of free full colour leaflets and booklets cover their work as well as the history of the major campaigns of both World Wars.

Work has started on the reprint of ‘My Dear Annie’ the letters of Lieutenant Herbert Borrett sent home during the Abyssinian Campaign of 1868, and this should be published in the summer of 2011. The Curator is also involved with the publication of the World War One Diaries and Letters of Private William Hodgson of the 2nd/5th Battalion and an account of the 1st Battalion during the Italian Campaign in 1943-45. Both titles are due for publication in the summer of 2011.

War Diaries – Digitisation Project

The War Diaries on CD-rom remain a steady seller with 67 being sold this year. Again fewer than previous years, but they still provide a good source of income.

The War Diaries are for sale and advertised within the museum, as well as on our website, and the curator brings them to the notice of people researching the First World War when answering enquiries.

Website

The museum’s website continues to be an important method of accessing our collections and information on the history of the regiment. Once again more than fifty thousand visits were made, with a very slight decrease in the total compared to last year of 522, but 50,737 visitors remains a very impressive figure.

Over five thousand more items from the museum’s collections have been listed or appear on our website since last year. This represents just over one half of the museum’s collection with 15,600 items being listed. Many more specific enquiries are being received as a result of this, including requests for digital copies of photographs and documents.

Major additions during the year include the following:

With just over 50% of the museum’s collection now appear on the website there is still much work to be done. As time and resources permit the website will be expanded. The addition of the General Sir Archibald Hunter Archive, purchased with grant aid from the Heritage Lottery Fund, was a very time consuming project, but sets a standard for other parts of our collection.

Web Statistics: www.kingsownmuseum.plus.com

Overall totals from Aug 2005 - 217,369 visitors

The museum also has a page on Facebook which has over 600 ‘fans’. The Facebook page is used to communicate changes and additions to the museum’s website, as well as promote events. The Facebook allows for users to ‘write on the museum’s wall’ and make requests for assistance from other ‘fans’. People can and do upload their own images, include pictures of their families as well as post links to other pages which are of interest. Facebook costs the museum nothing but is an excellent tool to reach out to a growing number of people.

Enquiries

A double count of the enquiry figures confirms that one less enquiry was answered in 2010/11 compared to the previous year with the annual total standing at 1217. By far the majority of enquiries are received by email, and this makes life a little easier when a reply can include links to our website to draw the person’s attention to the fact that much of what they want can actually be found on the internet. The internet has revolutionised the way we work and share information on both regimental history and the material in our collections.

Some enquiries are a direct result of collection listings on our website. A person may request information about a single photograph of Lebong Barracks, India, and then their enquiry leads to considerable research on all the photographs of colonial buildings, in the museum’s collection. The internet search engines, such as ‘Google’ are certainly doing their job when it comes to the King’s Own Museum!
Enquiries continue thick and fast, and to be honest the museum does little to encourage them or advertise the service we offer. If we did there would be probably more than we could cope with!

Who do you think you are? Live.
Once again the Curator flew the flag for the King’s Own at the BBC’s annual family history show at Olympia, ‘Who do you think you are? Live.’ The Curator answered 135 enquiries or identified objects at the Army Museums Ogilby Trust sponsored stand. Whilst not all was military, with the odd Boy Scout photograph cropping up, the key benefit of the stand is letting the public know what Regimental and Corps museums can offer. The BBC will be running the event again in 2012 and with another series of the popular television programme due for broadcast in the summer it will continue to be an important part of the museum’s calendar. Without the co-ordination of AMOT and the support of the other museums which take part the stand could not be as successful as it is.

Talks & Activities

The King’s Own Museum and Curator takes part in the national Heritage Open Days and the local ‘Lancaster Unlocked’ events, as well as providing a range of talks and lectures both within the museum and to other organisations. A number of sessions have been run including:

Whilst a good number of schools visit the museum and take part in the education session on Home Front in World War Two the curator is increasingly being asked to provide specific sessions for local primary schools. The Curator dressed as a First or Second World War soldier is now a regular at the Remembrance Day events at Sandylands School in Morecambe and this year a group of pupils from Torrisholme School visited the museum to further their knowledge on the First World War. History students from the University of Cumbria have also visited to see ‘History at Work’.

There is great scope for expansion of the First World War session as schools not only use the topic as part of their history, but also for citizenship, English literature and art. Visits from Primary Schools are far easier to encourage and thought is being given to organising a special week of activities to tie in with Remembrance Day and/or Armed Forces day.

Work with outside bodies

Exhibitions

“The Last Post”
Held in one of the ground floor exhibition rooms and opened in March 2010 the exhibition ran to July 2010 and included many letters, postcards and similar items from the King’s Own collection to compliment the displays provided by British Postal Museum. The exhibition included photographs, medals, uniform and a recreation of the postman’s hut as it would have been just back from the front line trenches in Ypres! The exhibition has received tremendous positive feedback.

Visitor comments to King’s Own Museum & The Last Post Exhibition, 2010.

Images of Empire
Lancaster City Museum Visitor Service Assistant, Madeleine Coupe, curated a special exhibition titled ‘Images of Empire’ which was displayed on the mezzanine floor of the King’s Own Gallery. Madeleine selected a handful of images from the museum’s collection focussing upon the Empire end of the Victorian Era. Photos included views in Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Africa and Malta, not only featuring the military, but also the impact of the military upon the civilian populations. Shortly afterwards Madeleine was appointed to a temporary post at the Judges Lodgings Museum in Lancaster, and has since left the service for a heritage job in Norwich.

Remembrance – Images of the Western Front
This special exhibition was prompted by a talk by David Shackleton to the local branch of the Western Front Association, which meets on the first Monday of each month in the museum’s meeting room. David gave an illustrated talk on the cemeteries and memorials of the Western Front and agreed to provide the images for the exhibition. Along with the stunning colour photographs a range of objects relating to the First World War are displayed along side. The exhibition had a well attended preview in November and has received much praise.
Some of the images from the exhibition were supplied to Leighton’s Hairdressers in Sedbergh, Cumbria, who use their shop window display to promote Remembrance Day each year. This is the second year that the museum has provided items for the display.
A complete set of the images used in the exhibition were also provided to HM Prison Preston to assist with their Remembrance Day service. The museum had previously supplied regimental history resources to the Prison, where former members of the armed forces can be found amongst both prison staff and the inmates.

The museum hopes to continue to be able to work with such outside bodies in order to promote both regimental and military history.

Wash Scene Forward Operations Base – Afghanistan 2010.

With a little bit of imagination the wash bowl, ‘puffing billy’ water heather and washing line with desert combats can take our visitor to real life Afghanistan where troops from all three battalions of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment have been on active service this year. Using photographs provided by members of the battalion and various items of kit (begged, borrowed and stolen) as well as being kindly sent by serving soldiers, the wash scene is created. What can not be created is the heat, dust and smells of the actual base, but as one visitor commented “it really brings it all home to you”.
Sadly a box of “exhibits” gathered together and destined for the museum has been lost, with a few other items, in transit between Camp Bastion and Catterick Garrison. Whilst the Royal Military Police are looking in to the matter their priorities are no doubt to the more valuable or personal items stolen rather than a box of everyday and ordinary odds and ends put to one side for the museum.
Some items did make it via ‘hand baggage’ including a small Afghanistan made carpet – illustrated with a map of the country and various pieces of military hardware.
The museum is most grateful to all of those who have assisted with our contemporary display including Majors Simon Walton and Max Davison, WO1s Neil Barnett and Darren Szymanski, Colour Sergeant Steve Bowman; Corporals Scott Little and John Redman.

The Curator is a personal member of the following organisations:

The Museum is a member of:

Acquisitions

Yet again we have had another year of really quality acquisitions to the museum’s collection. A few stand out above the others.

Whilst the museum was unable to even consider bidding for the Victoria Cross and Military Medal of Lance Sergeant Tom Neely VC MM of the 8th Battalion, which sold for over £130,000, we were very pleased to be able purchase a small medallion of another regimental VC. Lance Sergeant Tom Fletcher Mayson was awarded the VC in 1917 and on his return home in December 1917 he was presented with a gold medallion, chain and watch by the people of his village, Silecroft, and near-by Millom. The 9ct Gold medallion and chain were offered for sale to the museum, which acquired it through a 100% grant from the Friends of Lancaster City Museum. The chain and medallion are now on display alongside Mayson’s Medals.

At the annual meeting of the museum’s trustees Mrs Sally Caveliero presented to the museum the letters of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Bevan. Bevan commanded the 4th Foot in 1811 and committed suicide after he felt he was unfairly criticised by The Duke of Wellington. Declined an inquest by the Duke and feeling that the name of the regiment had been slighted he killed himself. His sword was donated to the museum in the1980s and so wonderful that the archive is now with the museum as well. In the fullness of time each letter will be digitised, transcribed and added to the museum’s website.

In December the Curator was forwarded and email which had been received elsewhere in the museum service many months previously. Not lost in “cyber space” bust just sat in an inbox unread! The email was concerning the potential donation of some World War One diaries and fortunately the potential donor had not disposed of the diaries elsewhere by the time the museum contacted her! The diaries were those of a friend of a relative, so other than the diaries, there is only limited information about the officer who wrote them. A little research turned up a fascinating story.

The diaries were written by Frederick Herman Delafield, who was born in March 1877 and was commissioned into the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment in August 1915. Delafield was at the time the Manager of a Chemical Works at Winnington, Northwich, Cheshire. His Army Book 439 (Officers Record of Service) presented some interesting clues: he spoke German and French and received a PhD from Heidelberg. A small amount of research turned up the fact that just days before he was commissioned into the King’s Own he changed his name from Ludwig Johann Friedrich Hermann Dellsohaft. His father and brother changed their names at the same time, his brother later serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps. The diaries which are now in the process of transcription, are not the easiest to follow, but cover his service with the 2nd/5th Battalion of the King’s Own, and hopefully one day will be published in some form.

The Curator and Trustees wish to thank all those who have generously donated items to the museum’s collection. The full list for 2010/11 is produced below:

 

Peter Donnelly BA AMA
Regimental Curator
King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum
Market Square
Lancaster
LA1 1HT

Curator Telephone: 01524 555619
Museum Telephone: 01524 64637
Fax: 01524 841692
Email: kingsownmuseum@iname.com
Website: www.kingsownmuseum.plus.com