Page 105 - MERCIAN Eagle 2018

Curator Danielle Crozier visiting Leaticia Hardie with the medals of her father Brigadier General Wyatt DSO, August 2018
LCpl Anthony Rook and LCpl Pete Edelsten of 4 Mercian supporting at the Cathedral during the Poppy Fields Events
Chairman Brigadier Jim Tanner OBE narrated the documentary. The ongoing project’s aim is to identify and discover the stories of the men shown in the famous canal bank picture. Several of the museum team also attended a battle field tour of
the area, and were on Riqueval Bridge on the morning of the 29th September, 100 years to the day it had been captured. We were very blessed to be joined on the tour by several relatives of three individuals who crossed the canal that
morning, all of whom
we connected with
through the lottery grant
and our appeal for
people to come forward
with more information.
During the trip we
visited the battlefield of
Gommecourt, which the
division had fought at during the Battle of the Somme, and travelled up to Mannequin Hill to the site where William Harold Coltman was awarded the Victoria Cross making him the most highly decorated soldier of other rank in the British Army: a title he still holds to this day. To mark this remarkable man’s tale we also installed a small exhibition on Coltman in the gallery and took his Victoria Cross Medal group to the the unveiling of his memorial stone in Burton on October 4th.
Museum Volunteers; Rob Wantling, Hiliary Hinks & Susan Leighfield supporting the JCB Poppy appeal Launch at DMS Whittington, October 2018
We supported three major external exhibitions last year with two independent organisations. We loaned the Hartenstein Airborne Museum in Oosterbeek the two Victoria Crosses earned by the South Staffordshire Regiment during the Battle
of Arnhem. They also borrowed the other three VC’s awarded for the battle. This
was the first time the five medals had
ever been displayed together and it was poignant that this took place in the historical
This was the first time the five medals had ever been displayed together...
surroundings in which they were all awarded. We also supported two exhibitions in Lichfield Cathedral. The first was examining the Consequence of War, and they borrowed several items from the collection covering
different time periods of the Staffordshire Regiment’s military service, including the ‘Bellingham Cross’, which was made in honour of Pte Gareth Bellingham. Their second exhibition was a special event produced in honour of Remembrance Day and was focused on the idea of Imagining Peace. Poignantly we loaned all 8 of
our Victoria Crosses to the cathedral on November 11th, where they were proudly displayed on the Alter to mark 100 years of the Armistice during the main morning
The 5 Victoria Crosses on display in the Hartenstein Museum, April – September 2018
Pte Hardcastle supporting Cathedral Staff in the installation of museum objects as part of the Consequence of War exhibition 2018
service. They then remained on display in the cathedral for the rest of the day as part of the Poppy Fields installation. We were very grateful to LCpl Anthony Rook and LCpl Pete Edelsten, from 4 MERCIAN, for supporting us on the day.
In 2019 we will be focusing upon the 75th Anniversary of the Normandy Invasion and of the Battle of Arnhem and have planned some exciting events and exhibitions to commemorate them.
The Museum team standing on the Riqueval Bridge, ST Quentin, September 2018
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
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