Page 148 - MERCIAN Eagle 2011
P. 148
146
The Re-enactors prior to Night in the Trenches
The Staffordshire Regiment Museum
The Staffordshire Regiment Museum
has had another very active year and many interesting activities have been undertaken. We currently have over 70 volunteers and these are divided between the Front of House Team, Research Team and Education Team. These include former Staffords, people with Regimental connections, local people with no military connections and members of Regimental Headquarters who like to help as well.
The schools’ visits continue to be our point of main effort and we have hosted schools on over 90 days during the year. In addition to WW1, WW2 and Remembrance, we now offer Victoria’s Wars, which has recently become part of the National Curriculum.
The Friends of The Museum offered to run our events programme for 2011 and this has been a great success. We ran our regulars such as ‘Night in the Trenches’ and ‘Carols in the Trenches’ plus three weekend events. These were a WW2 Weekend in May, a WW1 Weekend in
July and a Wartime Whittington Weekend in September. The last event had stands featuring the Home Guard and Rationing, as two of the themes. On the 16th July
we held a murder mystery evening, which
involved a murder in our WW1 Trench. This was thought to have been a great success and is likely to feature again in 2012. We also hosted a pre-tour Press Day for 3rd Battalion, The Mercian Regiment (Staffords), prior to their deployment to Afghanistan.
Willie Turner our Museum Assistant has been as energetic as ever and has recruited over 100 re-enactors, whose groups
are affiliated to the Museum. His team of Education Volunteers are also active and have run stands in RAF Cosford Air Display, Whittington Village Fete, Cannock Chase and other events during the year.
Website, which will be live very shortly.
We have had a change at the top, Major
Mike Simpkins has stepped down as Chairman of the Museum Trustees. Despite living in Bournemouth, Mike came up on
a regular basis and we appreciate all the hard work that he did and the fun we had with him. He continues to be one of our Trustees. Now that Brigadier Jim Tanner has finally retired from the Army and returned from Saudi Arabia, he has agreed to act as Chairman and lead the Appeal Committee. The Museum Appeal continues and we are receiving generous donations from serving
and former members of the Regiment.
The rebuilding of Whittington Barracks has started again in September with work on the new approach
road and round about on the A51. At the time of writing, the sports field resembles
a runway under construction. This has affected our car parking capacity, so in 2012 our intention is to run small scale events. In December 2011 we will start planning the Museum’s contribution to The Mercian Regiment’s wider commemoration of the Great War.
In January we said
farewell to our Curator,
Dr. Erik Blakeley who
has been with us since
June 2005. He has
moved to the National
Tank Museum in
Bovington and we wish him every success and hope to see him again in the future. He was replaced in 2011 by Mrs Sarah Elsom, who agreed to return for a year, prior to becoming High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 2012. We have appointed Danielle Pritchard to become our new Curator, she has worked as a volunteer for twelve months and has helped to write material for the new
WW2 Airborne Weekend – US Airborne re-enactors assault a position. British Airborne Re-Enactment Society Members at our WW2 Airborne Weekend
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
The Museum Appeal continues...