Page 108 - Light Dragoons 2023 CREST

As the new year commenced, and with the worst of the pandemic behind us and our visitor numbers growing steadily, we turned our attention towards main- tenance and updates within the gallery. Four years on from the opening of the gal- lery the film projectors reached the end of their lifespan and the decision was made to replace them all and, at the same time, to update the films in the ‘A Complicated World’ section of the gallery. We swapped out three of the films and replaced them with ones featuring Guy Disney, Simon and Vicky Taylor, and Op Cabrit. Due to supply issues with the hardware this took us longer than hoped but by the May half- term holidays all six projections were working as intended with improved colour and clarity.
Towards the end of the spring we opened our new temporary exhibition, ‘From Petticoats to the Front Line’. Today the proportion of women serving in the Army has never been higher, with women now being able to serve in all combat roles. However, this hadn’t always been the case and the exhibition explored that story, from the first woman to join the regiment in the 1780s to the more recent recruits of The Light Dragoons. I would like to thank Pippa Ovey (Knight) and especially Captain Alice Strawbridge for permission to use their stories and for all their help.
The exhibition was linked to Discovery Museum’s main summer exhibition ‘Stories of Service’ which, through work with the Imperial War Museums (IWM), shared recently uncovered stories of Tyneside women, and the people who came to Tyneside from the African and Caribbean diaspora during the Second World War. Having ‘From Petticoats to the Front Line’ as a satellite display of
The Charge Display at Mowden Hall
Discovery Museum’s main exhibition con- tinued to help firmly embed us within the wider museum, particularly as we were able to loan objects to Discovery Museum for its exhibition and which will later go on permanent display in the ‘Newcastle Story Gallery’.
A benefit of the temporary exhibition was that we acquired some new objects for the collection in line with our contemporary collecting policy. First was a set of water colour sketches depicting the proposed uniforms for female Light Dragoons and, with the help of a grant from The Army Museums Ogilby Trust, we purchased a female officer’s mess dress. This was on display in our temporary exhibition and will be moved to a permanent location in
the uniform case in main gallery later this year.
However this was not the only mess dress to be added to the collection as that sum- mer our attention was drawn to a 15th/19th Hussars Officer’s mess dress uniform that was being offered up for sale. Normally this is not something that we would look to purchase as we already have examples in the collection but this one was owned by the late MP Ian Gow TD who did his National Service between 1955-58 and was commissioned into the 15th/19th Hussars, serving with them in Northern Ireland, Germany and Malaya. He was then in the TA until 1976 reached the rank of Major.
Another addition to the collection was the purchase of a map case belonging to
The Regimental Journal of The Light Dragoons
Museum
Mess Dress belonging to the late Maj Ian Gow TD
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