Page 112 - The Light Dragoon 2024

It’s been another busy year at Charge! and one which sees our visitor numbers continue to increase. Many of these visitors have benefitted from meeting our in gallery explainers, Steve, Alan and Dave, who are on hand to answer questions and engage with both adults and school children alike. They add a valuable dimension to the visitor experience with their wealth of knowledge and experience between them. In March, as a recipient of Heritage Lottery Funding, the gallery took part in the National Lottery Open Week with the volunteers giving a presentation about the 13th/18th Hussars and the D-Day landings. It is hoped that this will become a regular event in the Charge! calendar.
In June a trip down to Catterick was arranged for the volunteers and they spent time with the regiment, visiting the squadron lines, L.A.D., chatting to members of the regiment about their experiences, why they joined and comparing life in the regiment to what it was like when they served, finishing off with lunch in the Officers Mess. They thoroughly enjoyed the visit and would like to express their thanks to Mick Reed and all those who helped make their day so enjoyable. Their newly acquired knowledge has also been put to use in their role gallery explainers.
We are also pleased to welcome Richard to our team of volunteers, using his interest and knowledge in military history he is going to be working behind the scenes researching specific areas of the collection and updating our catalogue records to reflect this. The outcome of this will not only increase our knowledge of the collection but will also benefit members of the public who search our online collection as more information will become available to them.
Amongst the items donated to the museum one of the most notable was the collection
The letters of Lt Basil Pearson.
of letters written by Lieutenant Basil John Pearson to his friend David Gibbs. Lt. Pearson served in the 15th/19th Hussars and the letters are written in 1943 and early 44 and document his training before joining the regiment, he was killed in action on 10 September 1944. Lt. Pearson had only recently taken command of a troop in B Squadron and, whilst the squadron were engaged in a hard battle against some determined S.S. Troops near Zondhoven, Belgium, his tank was hit by a self-propelled anti-tank gun killing the driver and co-driver. Lt. Pearson remained calm, kept his gun in action and succeeded in knocking out both the anti-tank guns. He then got out of his tank to see what he could do for the two men hit and was shot in the neck by a sniper. The letters are a fascinating read and will be a valuable addition to the archive.
At the beginning of June we were delighted to welcome members of the French Consulate, Jean-Charles Ledot (Deputy Consul General to the UK) and Eric
Donjon (French Honorary Consul, NE and Cumbria), to the museum. We were joined by the Director of TWAM, Keith Merrin, and other TWAM staff, as well as representatives from HHQ LD. As the date of the visit coincided with the 79th anniversary of D-Day a presentation was given by David Weatherstone about the participation of the 13th/18th Hussars and the Northumberland Hussars in the allied invasion of Europe on the 6th June 1944, this was then followed by a guided tour of the gallery. The Deputy Consul General thoroughly enjoyed the event and ended up requesting a tour of Discovery Museum resulting in him very nearly missing his train home.
We have also been busy front of house in the gallery and over the course of the year we have undertaken a programme of deep cleaning. In particular we had noticed that the glass on the inside of the display cases was beginning to look cloudy and so with the help of Discovery Museum’s Front of House team we have been working our way round the cases cleaning them. We had to carry this work out mostly before we were open to the public, or when the museum was very quiet, with some of the display cases taking over two hours to complete as we cleaned not only the glass and case interiors but also the museum objects, and whilst it was not a quick process it was certainly a worthwhile one as the gallery is looking as good as the day it opened. Elsewhere in the gallery we have updated the ‘Oath of Allegiance’ graphic panel to show the allegiance sworn by members of the armed forces to His Majesty King Charles III.
Thanks must go as always to Alisdair Wilson, our Curatorial Advisor, Bill Griffiths and the wider TWAM team including Front of House and Conservation, and to our dedicated team of volunteers.
The Regimental Journal of The Light Dragoons
Museum
The visit of Jean-Charles Ledot (Deputy Consul General to the UK) and Eric Donjon (French Honorary Consul, NE and Cumbria).
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