Regimental Museum Report

Your Museum continues to be an increasingly popular destination for visitors to Winchester; the time and effort put into marketing by the Staff, in particular using social media, is showing results as recent comments on Trip Advisor show:

“An excellent day out for all the family”…“The standard this museum is kept at can't be overstated”…“The staff were very friendly, happy to help with any questions”…

and one of which, as Green Jackets, we should all be proud to read:

“This must be the best Military Museum in the country”

It is heartening to see the Museum so highly rated by visitors and this would not be so without the hard work and effort put in by the Museum Staff - Mrs Christine Pullen as Curator, Ms Elspeth McPhee as Museum Assistant, Major Ken Gray as Archivist and of course our volunteers. Volunteers are key to the Museum’s operations as they help keep our costs down and free up the Curatorial staff to concentrate on their core duties and keep the Museum displays fresh. Please get in touch if you think you can help. The Museum has been particularly fortunate to have had Brigadier Vere Hayes as Chairman of Trustees for the past 4 years –he stood down in November. Vere has put a huge amount of time into continuing to make the Museum successful; we are very grateful and wish him and Penny well. effect on visitor numbers that were down by around 700 on 2018 at an overall total of 12,390. The Joint Ticket initiative, which offers a reduced entrance fee to the three admission charging museums in Winchester, is also having a negative effect on our trading of around £350 plus an unquantifiable amount of Gift Aid and reduced shop sales. We will be addressing this with Winchester Military Museums early this year.

The 2019 programme of evening lectures proved popular and well attended. The highlight this past year was probably a return by Professor Emily Mayhew, supported by Harry Parker (author of Anatomy of a Soldier), speaking about the treatment of those wounded in Afghanistan.

The 2020 programme of talks can be found on the

One of the various exhibit cases

Museum Website and places booked through the shop. The talks are always interesting with the opportunity to meet the speaker over a glass of wine and canapes afterwards. The museum is always looking for new subjects of interest and the curator would welcome any ideas or introductions.

The Museum staff create small temporary displays throughout the year, often using projects undertaken by students sent to the Museum to

gain work experience. In addition to these there were two larger exhibitions in 2019:

Inspiration for 'The Last Duel' exhibition came from researching the history of an épee in the Museum by actor Jason Salkey who played Rifleman Harris in the TV series ‘Sharpe’s Rifles’, joined them. Visitors viewed items of memorabilia from the film set and learned what life was like as a rifleman during the Peninsular War.

Norman Leslie’s épee and correspondence related to the duel

Reserve Collection that it was discovered had been used by Captain Norman Leslie, Rifle Brigade when, in 1910, he fought a duel against Yousury Pasha, a Turkish Diplomat with whose wife he had had an affair when serving in Egypt. Duelling was illegal so they met in secret in Paris; the duel was the last one to be fought by a serving British army officer. The exhibition featured the épee Norman Leslie used in the duel and a collection of related hand written letters arranging the meeting that are held in the National Archives Dublin.

The second exhibition entitled '50 years of Op Banner' featured a rolling display of photographs on a large screen in a corner of the main bar tent at the 2019 Reunion. It attracted a lot of attention and triggered numerous 'war stories'. The images of Op Banner are to be included in the VDU that forms part of the RGJ displays in the Museum.

In July soldiers from the past were on parade in Winchester to commemorate Salamanca Day - The Rifles regimental birthday named after the Peninsular War battle of 1812. The 2nd Battalion 95th Rifles re-enactors were at the Museum where the staff, wearing regency costumes and accompanied Friends of the Museum among you will be aware of plans to update the ground floor displays from the end of WW1 to 2007 with particular emphasis on the 50 year story of The Royal Green Jackets. We are also working on improving the initial displays on entrance to the museum so that they explain a bit more about the origins of the Rifleman and the difference between line and rifle regiments. This project continues to be developed alongside the implementation of the already planned changes to the stairwell including completion of the conservation and reframing of the 43rd and 52nd Colours, and an interactive display of bugle calls with video. Once the plan is agreed we will be able to go out to Design Consultants for tenders on implementation; when a preferred submission is agreed the quest for funding will begin!

Whilst the immediate threat of losing MoD funding has receded it has not gone away so keeping the Museum fresh, attracting more visitors and building up contingency funds remains important. As was said last year, please support your Museum in any way you can, for example:

Become a volunteer. If you live not too far from Winchester and are able to help, either by sparing a few hours on a regular basis to man the welcome desk or take on another task, do contact the Curator. It would be greatly appreciated.

Sign up ‘on line’ as a ‘Friend’ by using the Museum website - on the Home Page scroll down to ‘Information’ and ‘Supporting the Museum’; then scroll down to ‘Becoming a Friend’.

Come to a Talk.

Consider leaving a small sum to the Museum Trust Fund in your will.

Finally, do call in at the Museum if you are in Winchester, you will always get a warm welcome. We look forward to seeing you.

Brigadier (Retd) James Plastow CBE

Chairman RGJ (Rifles) Museum Trustees

Curator: Mrs Christine Pullen,

curator@rgjmuseum.co.uk, 01962 828549

Re-enactors and Museum Staff in Peninsular War costume

The Waterloo Diorama