Page 60 - The Gazette Autumn 2023

60 The Gazette QARANC Association
Preserving
and restoring
the QARANC
heritage
Lt Col (Retd) Keiron A Spires
QVRM TD, Curator of the QARANC Association Heritage Collection updates members on the ongoing work to conserve and display the history
of army nursing, as well as providing details of items which are being made available for you to purchase.
The QARANC Chattels (now the QARANC Association Heritage Collection) were historically managed by a serving QARANC officer, acting as the Chattels member of the HQ Mess Committee. Over many years the person in this role was only able, at best, to conduct annual audits of the Chattels whether in the HQ Mess or out on loan.
Documentation was sparse, and officers created their own means of record keeping and labelling of the items. The Chattels were valued and insured, but no systematic management of them as a collection took place. Over time many of these items were lost or deteriorated, some beyond economical repair.
The Corps also lost any records of the provenance of the Chattels which
made returning them to their donor impossible. It also made dealing with
any items with ivory problematic, as without accurate records of provenance the requirements of current and planned legislation could not 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 more time and energy than
one person could give.
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
new complete audit of the Chattels in Robertson House in July 2017, giving the Association a much better picture of what was in Chattels and in what condition the items were.
In 2018 the Board of Trustees committed £75,000 to a restoration and
Protecting furniture in Robertson House
Image from Watercolour Album
conservation project which would focus on those items of intrinsic and heritage value, bringing them into a condition where they could be safely managed to form the Heritage Collection. The project took two years to complete, although cataloguing and storage elements are continuing. It also set out a way for the Association to meet UK collection management
standards and in doing so satisfy the objectives of the charity. This in turn led to the adoption of the name ‘Heritage Collection’ to describe the items held by the Association.
The restoration and conservation were undertaken by Tankerdale Ltd, Richard Rogers Conservation Ltd, House of Garrard, London and by the Heritage Committee members where possible. A specialist company was used to transport furniture, paintings and sculpture to and from the restorers. Photographic and documentary records were made of the work undertaken and these are being added to the catalogue, but not all
are on there yet.
Since the project ended
Tankerdale have closed their business and our main support for repair, restoration or conservation remains Richard Rogers Conservation Ltd. Some items returned from other locations and new items either purchased or donated, have also been restored. Items purchased from the Heritage Fund are restored using the Heritage Fund, other items need business cases
agreed by the Board of Trustees.
In 2019 the collection records were