Page 137 - The Chapka 2016
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REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN) 135
  Colonel Charlie Radford MC with the music stand banner presented to the Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent, Councillor Anthony Munday, together with Mr Frank Foy (centre), leader of the Ex-regimental volunteers and Mr Chris Latimer (right), the City Archivist with a pre-war Cavalry Cup poster.
Archive of 16th/5th The Queen’s Royal Lancers at the Stoke-on-Trent Record Office
On the 1st December 2016 the Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent most generously held a reception to mark the deposit of the 16th /5th The Queen’s Royal Lancers Archive in the Stafford- shire Record Office in Stoke-on Trent.
Since the 1993 amalgamation the archive has been housed at Home Headquarters at Grantham in the best conditions that the building allowed. Although considerable work on the ar- chives has been carried out by Captain Mick Holtby, for which we are most grateful, it was felt that the building was not ideal for such a valuable collection. Thus Colonel Charles Radford MC investigated how other regiments cared for their archives and found that the Royal Green Jackets seemed to have a model appropriate to our own based on the County Record Office. In our case the Stoke-on-Trent Record Office provided all the con- ditions and professional expertise that was required and were extremely welcoming and enthusiastic to be entrusted with the care of the Archive. Over the course of the last year detailed dis- cussions took place resulting in the Archive being formally lent to Stoke-on-Trent.
We were delighted that the County of Staffordshire and the City of Stoke-on-Trent showed their appreciation and keen interest in the Regiment and the project by holding this formal recep- tion to mark the event. The Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent in-
vited the Lord Lieutenant, the High Sherriff and members of the county and city councils, together with a party of some thirty five ex-members of the Regiment. These included the team of volunteers which has been formed under the leadership of Frank Foy to continue the work of cataloguing and, in due course, digi- tizing the Archive. At the reception the City Archivist, Chris Latimer and archivist Louise Ferriday, who have been immense- ly helpful in establishing the Archive in its new home, laid out a display of highlights from the collection from the 18th cen- tury to the date of amalgamation. As the Lord Mayor was good enough to say: “We are delighted that Stoke-on-Trent people with regimental associations have been and are continuing to be a vital part of the project of making this archive widely acces- sible. This deposit marks the start of a partnership between the archive service and the regiment that we hope will grow in the years to come.”
Now that the Archive is established in the best possible con- ditions it is hoped that it will attract donations of regimental interest from individuals and other sources to create a centre for historical research for future generations. It goes without saying that the archives are available for inspection on application by interested parties, which will be made very much easier once the detailed cataloguing has been carried out and placed online.
JLP


























































































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