We are extremely lucky here at the museum to have a great team of volunteers. Each one has their own interests and tends to work on separate projects behind the scenes. We decided it was time for them to step out into the limelight so everyone can see what they have been up to. Our first volunteer in the spotlight is Kayte; these are her words below:
“Have you ever wondered what life behind the scenes in a museum is like? Well, let me share my experiences of working alongside the team at The Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum over the last seven months.
As a mature student at the University of Winchester, I joined the volunteer team for a 40 hour placement in support of my Master’s degree course. During that time, I learned how to scan images and write narratives for our digital photography archiving project. Not having a military background, this was a steep learning curve, but with the right level of encouragement, I quickly progressed.
As a consequence of the warm welcome I received, and the growth of my own interest in military history, I have increased my volunteer hours to a make a regular commitment of one day a week. No two days are ever the same and there’s always something new to learn or apply my skills to.
Over the last three months I’ve helped to identify and locate artefacts for temporary exhibitions, written new children’s trails, and learned to research enquiries about our veterans using our extensive archives, in addition to welcoming our visitors and general administrative tasks.
In March I’ve worked with Susannah, the deputy curator, to create the layout for our forthcoming exhibition about our National Servicemen in Malaya in the 1950’s, that has just opened over the Easter weekend. I’ve also been editing an oral history interview to create a sound track to accompany the exhibition.
There’s always a wide variety of tasks that require the support of volunteers. So, if you have a few hours to spare on a regular basis, and are looking for a challenge, why not come and join us? Contact Deputy Curator, Susannah Jarvis on 01962 863658 or email her at susannah.jarvis@royalhampshireregiment.org.”
Thank you Kayte for all your hard work for the museum. Next month we will have another volunteer’s words.
National Servicemen in Malaya – new display 4th April – 15th July 2018The museum is pleased to announce that a small temporary display on National Servicemen in Malaya is now open, with many artefacts loaned for the period. We are very grateful to everyone who has contributed their photographs, objects and memories, and look forward to seeing as many National Servicemen as can visit us over the next few months.
Hidden Treasures – no. 2The museum is lucky enough to have a variety of textiles in its collection, varying from uniforms and caps to craft items. This lovely embroidery of the Regimental Colours and Battle Honours was probably made during World War 1 as part of a rehabilitation course. It is well documented that soldiers undergoing treatment at military hospitals were often required to complete embroidery, willow weaving and papercraft activities as part of their care. This served a variety of purposes; both encouraging manual dexterity and acting as a type of physiotherapy, while also occupying the soldiers in quiet activity for a period of time. Sometimes the items produced by the soldiers were sold to raise money for the hospital or military charities, sometimes the patients would given them to friends and family as presents.
This embroidery is mostly sewn in wool, but the tiger has been completed in cross-stitch in embroidery silk. It shows a high level of skill to complete such a piece, especially one so large – this measures about 60cm square.
Hidden Treasures – no. 1The museum is currently undertaking a 100% Collections Audit to check the preservation and conservation requirements of all our items both on display and in the store rooms. In common with most museums, we have far more objects than we have space to display them, and so a useful part of auditing collections is seeing which items we can use for future temporary exhibitions, education sessions, and when we change the contents of display cases. We also have a photographer who is taking high-resolution images of all the items to add into our catalogue and to make available for researchers.
In this week’s boxes we found these wonderful shoes, brought back from India in 1917/1918. They are embroidered all over, and the soles are completely rigid, made out of layers of wood and cardboard. It would be extremely difficult to walk in such shoes, and as they show no sign of wear internally or on the soles, were probably purchased as a souvenir. 
The museum is pleased to announced that there will be a screening of “Charlie’s Letters” at Harbour Lights Picturehouse on Saturday 3rd March 2018 at 1030am. This feature-length film was written and directed by Elliott Hasler, who is only 17 (16 when the film was made), and is based on the service history of his great-grandfather who served with the Hampshire Regiment during World War 2, and was captured at the Battle of Sidi Nsir in Tunisia. He was taken to a POW camp in Italy, from which he subsequently escaped from and returned to England to see his wife and son. This film received good reviews from previous screenings at the Edinburgh Festival. Please note that this film was not made as a joint collaboration with the museum.
More details of tickets and the film are here
Volunteer Opportunities at the Museum.
We need people to join the team to assist with opening the museum at weekends and Bank Holidays. This role involves chatting to visitors, opening and closing up the museum, assisting with enquiries, and provides good visitor services/front of house experience. The museum is open from 11am to 3pm, and the commitment is usually 1 day per month so you will still have most weekends free!
The museum receives research requests every day on all manner of regimental history, but mostly individual soldier’s history from World Wars 1 and 2. We would like people to help us with this research – checking both original documents such as journals and photographs, as well as digitised records such as war diaries and enlistment books. If you are fairly computer literate, and are able to methodically check through a variety of sources to uncover the information, and make notes, then this role would be ideal for you.
The largest and most important project we are currently undertaking is to scan, identify and register every picture in all the photograph albums and loose pictures that have been donated to us. As there are well over 100 albums, each with numerous photographs this is a bit like painting the Forth Road Bridge but a vital job if we are to make our resources more accessible to those researching family history as well as historians in years to come.
We are re- cataloguing our collections of both paper documents and artefacts, and need some more volunteers to assist with this. This role will enable you to see and handle the full variety of objects held by the museum, but also provide a vital role in ensuring the condition of objects is checked and recorded, and that they are photographed and the records updated. If you are considering a career in museum work, and would like to see behind the scenes and sample the work of a collections officer/registrar, then this is an ideal chance to gain some experience.
We currently have some extremely hard-working volunteers who do a sterling job of keeping the lawns mowed and the rose beds tidy and weeded. We would love to have some more green-fingered people to help with larger-scale pruning jobs around the edges. If you like gardening but do not have your own space, then come and help us out.
If you are interested in any of these projects, we would love to hear from you.
Please contact the museum via the Contact Page or send an e-mail to museum@royalhampshireregiment.org
A postcard from beyond the grave – April 29th 1915
April 29th
My Dear wife a
pleasure of writing
leaves to you hope
quite safe and well as
thank God and fairing pretty fair
so far. My Dear, you must excuse
not for writing a letter as we are
in the trenches again and its a
job to get them posted but you
shall have a letter as soon as I
get the chance to send one. We are
some nice weather now but it’s a
bit cold at night but I wish I
was back home again with you
but that is no use writing that.
I’m sorry to say I don’t think it
will be over yet but we shall
all be very glad when it is. I am
sending Connie a post card I got
her quite safe to day My Dear
I had a letter from Mother will
you write and tell her I am still
all right I don’t think I can say
more tho’ so good bye for the present
from your Ever Loving husband
George Brown xxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
This terribly poignant postcard transcribed above in the museum’s archives was found on the body of 5658 Private George Brown, 1st Battalion Hampshire Regiment who was killed in action on the Grafenstal Ridge during the Ypres Salient. The postcard, written in pencil and ready to be posted, was in a cardboard wallet in his chest pocket, together with a photograph of his wife and daughter, a couple of picture postcards and some blank postcards ready to be written. The wallet and its content have a hole through the top right where George was shot in the chest, which is why some of the text is missing at the start. He was killed on 29th April 1915- the same day he had written to say he was safe.
A new donation – the Italian Escape Map from World War 2 belonging to Sgt Hubert Lawrence Hampshire RegimentMementos of a Hampshire Regiment soldier’s audacious escape from a Prisoner of War camp during the Second World War have been donated to the Regimental Museum.
Sergeant Hubert Lawrence trekked for hundreds of miles across German-occupied Italy after escaping from captivity in 1943. He finally reached the Allied lines nine months later. It is believed Sergeant Lawrence, who lived in Andover, used a silk map of Italy to navigate his way across the country during his epic journey. The maps were issued to Allied pilots to help them reach safety if they were shot down.
The map, on which Sergeant Lawrence marked his escape route, has now been handed over to the Regimental Museum in Winchester by his grandson, Stephen Stoodley.
‘I think they [the museum] are the best people to look after the story,’ said Mr Stoodley. ‘They will keep it forever, it will never be lost.’
Sergeant Lawrence was taken prisoner at the Battle of Tebourba in Tunisia in December 1942 while a corporal with the 2nd Battalion Hampshire Regiment. He was taken to Italy and a PoW camp near Milan in the north of the country.
Sergeant Lawrence escaped from the camp along with fellow soldier Private Bill Kirby in September 1943 after Italy signed an armistice with the Allies. The pair inched their way southwards on foot, generally hiding by day and travelling at night. They criss-crossed the country to avoid German patrols and natural obstacles such as the Apennine mountain range.
Part of the escape route marked by Hubert Lawrence on his map.
Speaking some ten years ago about the journey, Mr Kirby, who lived in Poole, said: ‘Escaping from the camp was not difficult because the Italians were not interested in keeping us. The decision we had to make was either to head for Switzerland or take the longer journey south to our own lines.
‘We headed south and were given food and clothing by locals throughout the journey – but we always had to be on the lookout for Germans and also Italian spies. We were spotted by a German one time who shouted “Halten” but we just turned round and ran like the clappers.’
The two men finally reached safety in the summer of 1944, after crossing the German Gothic Line earlier in the year.
It is estimated that some 10,000 Allied PoWs who escaped captivity were fed, guided and hidden from the Germans by the Italian people. Many Italian ‘collaborators’ were shot and it is thought that across all of Nazi-occupied Europe four helpers died for every escaper.
Sergeant Lawrence, who was married and had four daughters, was promoted after the war and he continued to serve in the Army in Africa. He died of malaria in Nigeria in 1948, aged 35, and is buried at the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Lagos.
A photograph of Sgt Lawrence taken after the war.
‘Lawrie was a great chap and we became very close during our time together,’ recalled Mr Kirby who many years later met Sergeant Lawrence’s daughters after one of them launched a search for their father’s wartime pal.
Along with the map, Mr Stoodley has donated four medals, a photograph of his grandfather and a picture of his grave in Nigeria to the Regimental Museum.
He added: ‘I’ve had the memorabilia a few years now and since the loss of my dad a few months ago I began to think about how short life is and what is going to happen to this when I go?
‘I think my grandfather was pretty brave and he deserves his story to be told to more people because not many know about it.’
We are very grateful for Stephen’s donation and the Italian escape map is the first we have in our collection. We have a few other escape stories as Hampshire Regiment soldiers seem to be very good at escaping after being captured. However, Hubert Lawrence’s escape from Italy is slightly more unique as he marked the route he took on his map.
The medals and map, together with Hubert’s escape story will be put on display in January 2018.
On this week in 1931 – the 1st Battalion in India
The museum is currently undertaking a large-scale digitization project on the enormous photographic collection we hold. While scanning in an album this week, museum staff discovered the following photos, taken on this week in 1931. The 1st Battalion Hampshire Regiment was serving in Waziristan in India at the time; the 1st Battalion served in India from 1927-1938 continuously.
The photograph below shows an early bi-plane used to drop supplies attached to parachutes. The mountainous terrain of the region meant that resupply was difficult for the troops, so aeroplanes were used as it was often easier to reach the more remote outposts.
The museum recently received this lovely group of medals into the collection, kindly donated by the grandson of the recipient.
These medals belonged to 17738 Private Harold Oliver Adlam, who served in the 2nd Battalion and 15th Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment during World War 1. The group comprises the Military Medal, the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
The 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal are often referred to as “Pip, Squeak and Wilfred”, after the characters in a long-running comic strip in the Daily Mirror. The comic strip was launched around the same time as the medals were issued in early 1920, and the nicknames stuck.
Private Adlam was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry while serving with the 15th (Service) Battalion, Hampshire Regiment in 1918. Few citations survive for gallantry awards, but the museum is fortunate enough to also hold the notebooks of the Commanding Officer of the 15th (Service) Battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel C D V Cary-Barnard, detailing all his recommendations for awards from his men. We looked up Private Adlam’s citation and it reads:
‘ 17738 Pte Harold Adlam. For great gallantry and devotion to duty during the operations at MORY, BIHUCOURT + GOMMECOURT March 25th when he handled his Lewis gun with great coolness under heavy fire and inflicted heavy losses on the advancing enemy at close range. His conduct throughout the whole operation was excellent while the fine example he set on this occasion had a good effect on all ranks. Recommended MM 6/4/18′.
Harold Adlam was born on the 20th November 1893 in Clanfield, Hampshire. He worked as a shepherd on a local farm prior to joining the army. He first entered a theatre of war on the 5th December 1915, when he went to Gallipoli.
The front and reverse of the 1914-1915 Star awarded to Private Adlam. This was awarded for service in Gallipoli, and has the initials of the King – George V at the bottom of the front. Medals were stamped with the recipient when they were issued – stars were stamped on the reverse, as shown here. Medals with patterns on both sides were stamped around the edges. As you can see, the letters and numbers do not have regular spacing; this is because they were stamped by hand with each individual letter and number being added separately.
The reverse of the Victory Medal – hence why the First World War is often referred to as “The Great War”.
The reverse of Pte Adlam’s War Medal. This is the side of the medal that is rarely seen as it is against the uniform when worn. The medal depicts the victorious St. George on horseback trampling over the Prussian shield; the skull and cross-bones are a commemoration of all those who lost their lives during the war. Around 6.4 million of these medals were issued to British and Commonwealth personnel which shows the enormous scale of the war.
