Page 33 - QARANC Vol 17 No 1 2019

QARANC Association Chattels
THE GAZETTE QARANC 31
The QARANC Chattels (now the QARANC Association Chattels) is a collection of items which would have been kept in messes, hospitals and training establishments. They include paintings, photographs, sculpture, furniture, jewellery, silver and silver plate. As units merged or were closed, these items were returned to the HQ Mess for safekeeping (although some items remain out on loan with existing units).
Over time the Corps lost any records of the provenance of the Chattels which makes returning them to their donors impossible. It also makes dealing with any items with ivory problematic, as without accurate records of provenance, the requirements of current and planned legislation cannot be met.
In 2016 the QARANC Association Heritage Committee was merged with the QARANC Association Chattels Committee to form a single entity with the realisation that the management of the Chattels required significant time and energy. A new catalogue of the Chattels was built from what information remained from previous Chattels records and from valuation documents from 2013. This was then used to conduct a complete audit of the Chattels in Robertson House in July 2017, giving the Association a much better picture of what was in Chattels and about their condition.
In 2018 we asked two conservation companies to come to Robertson House and carry out an inspection of the Chattels. One company specialised in furniture, and the other covered all the other items. It took many days to get through everything and their reports made very interesting reading! It was clear that without conservation and restoration work, many of these items would simply fall apart, or lose any value.
The Chattels are an important part of our heritage. They are a tangible link back to the places where Army nurses served, and a record of their activities and social life. We have embarked on a major project to manage the Chattels as a heritage collection. This means:
Keeping accurate records, auditing and photographing items
Disposing of some items where they do not carry much heritage value and would be costly to restore
Sending many items for conservation
QARANC Association Chattels N0083 Silver Sauce Boat and Ladle
or restoration, (and if you walk around Robertson House you will see little notices where items have been taken away, so people do not think it was burglary!)
Putting in place measures to house the collection in a more suitable way
Planning how to maintain them once they return back to Robertson House
Some of the items were not sent away this time as they only needed small amounts of work which the Heritage & Chattels Committee can carry out over time. One of the important things for us as a committee, is to try and piece together the history behind these items. Where did they come from? Why were they presented, and by whom?
One of the items we have recently restored is a silver sauce boat and ladle, which together with a set of four silver entrée dishes were presented to the Sisters’ Mess at the British Military
Hospital, Tripoli, by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), in 1955, as seen in the photograph.
So far we have not been able to establish why they were presented to the Sisters’ mess. The general view is that BOAC female flight attendants would have stayed in the Sisters’ Mess when they were in Tripoli.
If you have the answer to this conundrum, or if you have any questions about the QARANC Association Chattels and their management, please get in touch.
Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) Keiron Spires
Chair QARANC Association Heritage & Chattels Committee
Chattels on return from cleaning, repair and conservation