The Worcestershire Regiment Museum
Dancox House TA Centre, the new home of The Worcestershire Regiment Museum Reserve Collection and Archives
John Lowles (left) Mrs Jones handing medals to Maj Prophet
This year has been a year of much change. After many years as Curator and Secretary to the Trustees and then as Chairman of Trustees, Col John Lowles has retired as both Chairman and Trustee. His enthusiasm for and knowledge of the Regiment are legendary: he is a walking encyclopaedia of regimental history. His enthusiasm for and devotion to the Museum are also legendary. He it was who – almost single-handed – organised fund-raising within the Regiment and then secured a Heritage Lottery Fund grant on the strength of it: he it was who brought The Worcestershire Yeomanry on board and then persuaded Worcester City Council to become a partner in the modernisation and refurbishment of the Gallery in the City Museum. He secured the assistance of The National Army Museum who advised on and assisted with the design and production of displays and, finally, having signed a 25 year lease agreement with the Council to secure the future of The Worcestershire Soldier Gallery, HRH The Princess Royal, then Colonel in Chief The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment, opened the Gallery amidst a panoply of publicity in 2003. The Museum Trustees are very grateful to him for his almost fanatical devotion and hard work but are delighted that he still gives of the benefit of his extensive knowledge as a volunteer researcher. Hugh Richards has succeeded him as Chairman and has persuaded Lt Col Mark Jackson, Lt Col Dominic Wilford (now CO 4 MERCIAN) and Maj Andrew Wadland to join the Board.
The other major news is the move of the Museum Reserve Collection and Archives. After sitting rather uncomfortably for many years in the RHQ building in what is left of
The Mercian Eagle
Norton Barracks, the Museum has moved to the new TA Centre, again named Dancox House after the Worcestershire Regiment and City resident World War I VC winner, in the centre of Worcester. Dancox House TA Centre is in the old Vinegar Factory, a Grade II listed building whose roof is supported by the first steel-arched beams to be used in the country. It is a fine structure which the developers – Carillion Richardson – have restored most sympathetically. The Museum has a small office, a large store with purpose- built racking and storage facilities, a secure room for valuables and a large committee room where the volunteer researchers will be able to work with all of the necessary research volumes to hand. Dave Sands, the Museum Archivist, has worked long and hard for most of this year to pack up and label hundreds of boxes ready for the move. He was ably assisted by the researchers and,
THE MUSEUM GOES FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH
just prior to the move, by the Regimental Recruiting Team so that the Removal Company had only to load and unload the enormous quantity of material. Dave Sands has now started the long task of sorting out his kingdom, arranging for the computers to be wired into broadband lines, telephones to be installed, bookcases to be filled and pictures to be hung. Although the TA Centre is now finished, work is still going on outside to build an adjoining multi-storey car park and a huge adjacent Asda Supermarket. When Asda is in full swing in about twelve
months’ time, countless shoppers will pass the main entrance of Dancox House thus raising the profile of 214 Bty RA (V) (the main occupant of the TA Centre), of the Army generally and of the Museum. The move has come at an opportune moment, not only because the RHQ building has been in a bad state of repair for many years but because the number of enquiries is on the increase. There is no question that television programmes have had an effect on this but, also, many families are finding parents’ and grandparents’ military paraphernalia in the attic, prompting them to research their military experience and, in many cases, to lodge the medals, photographs and documents found with the Museum for safe keeping and posterity.
You will read elsewhere in this issue of the dedication of the new Memorial in the refurbished Gheluvelt Park in Worcester; the explanatory display was arranged and staffed by Lt Col Trevor Wilson and other researchers with material from the Museum. Education, also, forms an important part of Museum life and Lt Col Brian Clarke works hard with the City Museum Education Officer to spread the word of the Regiment to schools. He has prepared briefing packs and handling boxes to complement the national curriculum and these are proving very popular with teachers and children alike: the Museum has received grants which have allowed us to buy and acquire moe such material. Worcester City Council have reduced the Gallery opening hours this year as an economy measure (Worcester having been hit particularly hard in government cuts) but this appears not to have affected visitor numbers. The Museum goes from strength to strength.
October 2010 131
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