Page 93 - MERCIAN Eagle 2017

Craft Group with their minitures in front of the Colours display
Barratt VC, 7th Bn the South Staffordshire Regiment, was 22 when he was killed on the 27th July 1917 by an artillery shell. Before his actions at Ypres he had served at Gallipoli and on the Somme. The museum was extremely privileged to attend, with
the assistance of the Regimental Support Team, the unveiling of the paving slab in his honour. Also in attendance at the event was Johnson Beharry VC, and several surviving members of Pte Barratt’s extended family. The second VC was awarded to Sgt John Carmichael, 9th Bn the North Staffordshire Regiment, for his actions on 8th September. Our Third Ypres commemorations came
to a head when we were honoured to
host, with the support of DMS Whittington, Staffordshire’s Poppy Appeal Launch in partnership with The Royal British Legion. C/Sgt Watchman V was in attendance, as was the museum Curator and two of our Victoria Crosses. Sadly Pte Derby was ill
at the time and unable to attend but Cpl Thornton, the Ram Major, attended and read out one of our VC Citations as part
of the service. With the help of a local
WI group and lots of school and cadets participation from around the county we were able to create a giant ‘Knot’ wreath from individual poppies. Each poppy had an individual name attached and represented all of the men from the South and North Staffordshire Regiments who were killed during the Third Ypres Campaign.
2018 looks to be another busy year, as we come to a close on the First World War Commemorations. The 100th anniversary of the crossing of the Hindenburg Line and the Battle of St Quentin will be our focus. Partnered with this we shall also be commemorating L/Cpl Harold Coltman VC and his extraordinary achievements on the Western Front. With the support of the Armed Forces Community Covenant and the Heritage Lottery Fund we have been able to secure the funds to go ahead with our Camp Fisher project in honour of WO2 Ian Fisher.
Craft Group with their minitures in front of the Colours display
two War Memorials on camp, and invited the Museum and Association over for the unveiling.
Headquarters kindly allowed us to borrow the Queen’s and Regimental Colours of the 3rd Battalion which we were able to display proudly in the gallery. This was a unique opportunity for many people to be able to see up close the detail and workmanship which goes into producing them, and
gave our guides a fantastic opportunity to talk our visitors
Early summer saw a short visit to us by some members of 2 MERCIAN, who called in ahead of a visit to the Kings Head in Lichfield. This led to us wanting to show our support for them and all the work that they would do whilst away
on tour. We launched
the Shoebox Campaign
in early August and set
ourselves the target of
400 boxes by the time
your deployments to
Iraq and South Sudan
were complete. After
an initial slow start and
being banned from one
post office for taking
down too many parcels to process, the curator’s office soon started to resemble the warehouse we wanted. By the end of the campaign we were staggered with all the support we received. In total we were able to send 603 boxes and, with thanks
to a large donation received at the end of November, were able to donate £500 to the Mercian Benevolent Charity.
There were two main themes this year for our exhibition programme; The Third Battle of Ypres and Mercian 10. Regimental
through the different battle honours and emblems. Our in house craft group have also hand made miniature versions of them both for our younger visitors to enjoy. Mr Lesley Bellingham also agreed to loan us the medals and additional artefacts
of Pte Gareth Bellingham for the period of the exhibition, which we displayed along with the uniform of WO2 Ian Fisher.
Our education officer, Steve Hemming, took the lead on our Third Ypres exhibition, and decided to install a tank in the gallery for impact! It has been a massive hit
with our families and younger visitors
in particular. This was an important anniversary for us to mark as both our antecedent Regiment’s earned a Victoria Cross during this campaign. Pte Thomas
‘Our education officer, Steve Hemming, took the lead on our Third Ypres exhibition, and decided to install a tank in the gallery for impact!’
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
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