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.
New Limited Edition Regimental Drum Ice BucketsThe museum is pleased to announce that we now have a very limited stock of brand new Ice Buckets in the shape of the Royal Hampshire Regimental Drum. Please see the link here if you would like to purchase one.
New Memorial to Second Lieutenant Dennis Hewitt VC in Hursley, HampshireA Hampshire Regiment officer who won the Victoria Cross in the First World War has been honoured at a ceremony held almost 100 years to the day after he was killed on the Western Front.
Veterans joined relatives and villagers at the unveiling of a special commemorative stone to Second Lieutenant Dennis Hewitt who won the highest award for gallantry on the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres – better known as Passchendaele – one of the war’s bloodiest engagements.
The ceremony, at Hursley War Memorial, near Winchester, Hampshire, took place in heavy rain grimly reminiscent of that which, a century ago, turned the Flanders battlefield into a quagmire.
Second Lieutenant Hewitt’s nephew, the Viscount Lifford, unveiled the stone. He was accompanied by his sisters, Mrs Lydia Kendon, the Honourable Mrs Belinda Warburton and the Honourable Mrs Flora Henderson, who laid a wreath (please see photograph below).
The Rector of Hursley Church, the Reverend William Prescott, dedicated the stone and Lieutenant Colonel Colin Bulleid, representing the Royal Hampshire Regiment, read the citation which gave details of the action for which Second Lieutenant Hewitt received his Victoria Cross.
The ceremony took place as the nation marked the centenary of the start of the Third Battle of Ypres on 31 July 1917. Second Lieutenant Hewitt, who lived in Hursley, died on the opening day of the three-month-long offensive in which more than half a million Allied and German soldiers were killed or wounded. He was just 19 years old.
Dennis George Wyldbore Hewitt was born in Mayfair on 18 December 1897. He was educated at Winchester College before leaving in 1915 for Sandhurst. He obtained a commission a few months later in the Hampshire Regiment and joined the 14th Battalion. Second Lieutenant Hewitt went out to the Western Front in September 1916 and took part in the later stages of the Battle of the Somme.
On 31 July 1917 the 14th Battalion attacked German positions near the village of St Julien, north-east of Ypres. Second Lieutenant Hewitt’s company had successfully captured their first objective when a shell exploded close to him, setting fire to the signal lights in his haversack and to his clothing. Having put out the flames, and despite his burns, Second Lieutenant Hewitt led his men forward in face of heavy German machine-gun fire and played a major part in the capture of the battalion’s final objective. Having reached it, however, he was shot and killed by a sniper.
Second Lieutenant Hewitt, one of three Hampshire Regiment soldiers to win the Victoria Cross between 1914-18, was initially buried close to where he died, but his grave was subsequently destroyed and his body lost. He is now one of the 54,389 British and Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave commemorated on the Menin Gate at Ypres. The original cross which marked his grave was recovered and is now in Hursley Church.
The Royal Hampshire Regiment veterans who attended the ceremony were: Major Ian Taylor TD, Major Peter Hawker MBE, who also carried the Regimental Standard, and Alan Rockbourne.
Second Lieutenant Hewitt was also honoured at a Victoria Cross Commemoration at Victoria Embankment Gardens in London on 26 June. The Lord Mayor, Andrew Parmley, gave the opening address and the Victoria Cross Citation for Second Lieutenant Hewitt was read by Colonel David Mogg of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, the successor to the Royal Hampshire Regiment.
Lance Sergeant Johnson Beharry, who himself won the VC in Iraq, joined family members in unveiling commemorative stones to Second Lieutenant Hewitt and Captain Thomas Colyer-Fergusson of the Northamptonshire Regiment, who also received a posthumous Victoria Cross for gallantry on the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres.
Further details of the Hampshire Regiment’s involvement at the Third Battle of Ypres and of the regiment’s other Victoria Cross winners during the First World War can be found on the Timeline.
We are grateful to Steve Lee of the Memorials to Valour project for some of the photographs. www.memorialstovalour.co.uk
What did you do in the war, Grandpa?
Many people are interested in tracing their family history, especially those connected to World War 1 as there are so many commemorative events at the moment.
We also get a lot of questions about where to start when trying to find what your family did in their military service. I thought it would be useful to put a quick guide on here in the hope it helps you; most of this is applicable to all regiments not just to the Royal Hampshire Regiment.
Points to remember:
• The Royal Hampshire Regiment was known as the Hampshire Regiment before 1946, and the 37th and 67th of Foot from 1702 to 1881.
• There is NO single list of soldiers that served with the Royal Hampshire Regiment.
• The museum does NOT hold the service records of soldiers – these are available elsewhere (details later in this post). At least 50,000 soldiers served in the Hampshire Regiment in World War 1 just to give you an idea of scale.
• We only hold information on the Royal Hampshire Regiment and their predecessors.
HOW TO START YOUR RESEARCH
• At the very least, you will need the surname and initials or full name of the person you are looking for.
• If you have a date of birth and service number, even better.
1. Are you looking for your own service record?
If so, you need to write to The Army Personnel Centre, MS Support Unit, P&D Branch, Historical Disclosures, Mail Point 555, Kentigern House, 65 Brown House, Glasgow, G2 8EX
2. Did the soldier serve after 1920?
A good starting point is to get their service record – we do not hold these in the museum. The service record should provide details of where and when they served.
Service Records are available from The Army Personnel Centre, MS Support Unit, P&D Branch, Historical Disclosures, Mail Point 555, Kentigern House, 65 Brown House, Glasgow, G2 8EX. or via this contact form . A fee is charged for this service, payable even if no records can be found. Full details are on their website.
From the service record, we can often provide details of exactly what their units were doing at the time. However most soldiers are not mentioned by name in the records unless they received gallantry awards or were injured.
3. Did the soldier serve in World War 1 or before?
All service records were transferred to the National Archives at Kew for soldiers serving between 1770-1920. However, about 80% of these were destroyed during the Blitz in World War 2, so there is no guarantee that your soldier’s records will have survived. The National Archives are open to the public and you can go there in person for research. The National Archives hold details on enlistment, movements, gallantry awards, and World War 1 Medal rolls. They also hold the census records from 1841-1911, birth, marriages and death registers and much more. Their website is here
The National Archives, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU
• Do you want more information now you have the service record?
If you are sure your family member served with the Royal Hampshire, or the Hampshire Regiment or the 37th or 67th of Foot, and you want some more details on exactly what they were up to, please contact the museum here. Unfortunately we do charge for research undertaken, due to time and staff involved. The charge is currently £40. PLEASE don’t phone us as we cannot carry out research while on the phone!
Tales of the Tigers
Welcome to the new blog from the Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum.
This has been started to keep you up to date with the work of the museum and archives, what we do and how we do it. Anyone is welcome to comment or question, but better still, come along to the museum in Winchester and see us.
To start off, here’s one of our favourite pictures. It’s Fritz, the regimental mascot. Fritz was captured during D-Day, and later bought for the regiment for the sum of £18. The coat he is wearing on this picture is in the museum. Fritz was not an ideal mascot however; he was continually trying to escape and chewed through his kennel on more than one occasion. He did, however, lead the regiment on parades around the region.
