Page 73 - MERCIAN Eagle 2020

Museum of the Mercian
Regiment (WFR Collection)
Jennifer Brookman-Moore, Curator
The museum started off 2020 with the purchase, through the Victoria & Albert Museum Purchase Fund, of the medals & archive material relating to Lt Col Victor Robinson MC**, OBE, TD, DL. Lt Col Robinson was an important figure in the Sherwood Foresters. He was CO of the Chesterfield based Territorial Unit, the 6th Battalion, and oversaw its conversion to an Anti-Aircraft unit in 1936. He was awarded a Military Cross and subsequent two bars for his actions in the First World War and it should also be mentioned that Victor was 2IC when Col Vann VC was killed in 1918.
An exert of the citation for one of his MC bars, from the London Gazette of 8 March 1919,
reads: “On 17th October 1918, after the attack
on Regnicourt had been launched, finding the right being held up by heavy enemy machine gun fire, he gathered together all available men and pushed forward on the left. This action cleared the enemy from their strongly fortified positions, and enabled his right flank to push forward, enabling his battalion to gain its final objective. Throughout he showed great gallantry and able leadership.” (attached 1/8th Battalion).
In addition to the medals, was an archive of letters written between 1914 and 1919 covering the Colonel’s experiences across the whole war including the Breaking of the Hindenburg Line
in which the Foresters followed the Staffordshire Regiment in the second wave. In civilian life the Robinson family owned a very successful business in Chesterfield.
Sometimes medals are like buses, you wait ages for Regimentally important ones to come up and then within the space of a few weeks after receiving the Robinson Collection, we were offered the Indian General Service Medal of Corporal William Bees VC. We already had the medals of Corporal Bees VC in the museum, less this one which had been sold due to the soldier’s alcohol addiction.
Corporal Bees is one of our lesser-known VC recipients having been awarded it during the Boer War. In addition, we received a wealth of archival material and images of Corporal Bees, to add to our collection. One of my personal favourites of
new information, is that at the wedding of Corporal Bees, his fellow Sherwood Forester Corporal, Harry Beet VC was Bee’s best man.
A brief reminder of the action, that led to Corporal Bees being awarded his Victoria Cross: “At Moedwil South Africa, on 30th September 1901, all the other members of his machine gun team being wounded, he collected water for them at great risk under heavy Boer fire.” Again, thanks to the Victoria & Albert Museum Purchase Fund we were able to purchase the medal and archive of research material and photographs that came with it.
Once lockdown was announced in March,
we began the redesign of our website. New features of our website include the chance to give greater access to our collection by creating online exhibitions, a more user-friendly chance to explore the history of the Regiment in Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire and enabling the museum to be more visible on the web than previously. Presently we are now looking forward to the reopening of our gallery in Nottingham Castle in spring 2021.
Whilst this year has been different; it has enabled me to focus on choosing the objects and stories that will be going back into the gallery. This includes Star Object items which will give those that visit, the chance to focus in on some aspects of our collection including the histories of some
of those that served. One of these Star Objects will be the display of the mess kit and miniatures of Capt Sean Dolan in the WFR Display case. Captain Dolan joined the army in 1985, serving in the ranks before being appointed RSM and then being commissioned on 2 April 2006. During his second tour of Afghanistan, Capt Dolan was Killed in Action. To maintain pressure on the Taliban in Afghanistan the unit launched an operation on
30 June 2007, in Helmand Province. The force engaged a large group of Taliban who were setting up a possible ambush. Following a battle, an explosion struck a coalition vehicle. Whilst destroying the vehicle fire, the force engaged in Taliban fire. This resulted in the death of Captain Dolan.
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
MUSEUMS
71