Page 214 - Bugle Autumn 2014

Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum
The Museum reopened in April this year
on completion of the £500,000 revamp courtesy of the Heritage Lottery Fund.
We are all delighted with what our consultants RWDP Museum and Exhibition Design Consultants have achieved. The transformation is stunning: a complete redesign telling the story of our regiments from 1694 up to the present day Rifles campaigns. Multi-media screens in
each room allow us to link to the other antecedent Rifles regiments in each campaign and we can add items to this medium as new research comes to life.
We have a special exhibition room
which will change every 6 months and
will obviously be focussing on different aspects of WW1 over the next 4 years,
but we will break for Waterloo next year. The current exhibition is covering military aviation in WW1 as Gloucestershire played a considerable part in the expansion of
the Royal Flying Corps. Future exhibitions will include the Home Front, Gloucester Rugby Club in the war, Casualty Treatment, Gloucestershire War Poets and the Aftermath.
The official opening took place on 30 May when Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester honoured us with their presence. A crowd of around 200 joined us and a very jolly evening was had by all.
We gained a tremendous amount of experience in managing this project and will be only too happy to pass it on to other Rifles museums who may be considering an HLF application. We could also mount a special exhibition on hand to hand combat with the DIO and Divisional Fire Officer!
Chairman of Trustees, Lt Col (Retd) Rob Dixon, thanks the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester for re-opening the Soldiers of Gloucester Museum
The Corps of Drums of Gloucestershire ACF (The Rifles) performed during the Opening Ceremony.
ADVERTORIAL
Help close at hand
- when you need it most
Brenda’s husband, Captain Mark Hale was killed in August 2009 whilst serving in 2 RIFLES in Afghanistan. They had been married for 22 years and had two daughters together. The youngest, Alexandra, was still at primary school and after Mark’s death the family were desperate she remain there to enable continuity of care during a time when their lives had been turned upside down.
Unfortunately this was financially impossible so The Soldiers’ Charity stepped in to make a three year grant to cover the cost of school fees; this was done before Mark was repatriated back to his family in Northern Ireland.
Brenda has since become an ambassador for our charity. She says ‘I felt humbled to be asked, to be able to give something back to the charity that helped me in my darkest days. My girls and I have to walk a very lonely road, but with the support of The Soldiers’ Charity, we know that there are people out there who care for us’. www.soldierscharity.org/need-our-help
212 REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION NEWS
THE RIFLES