| Museum
of the Staffordshire Regiment |
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Opinion»
The Staffords will soon give up their individuality to be merged into the new
"Mercian Regiment" in 2006. See full
story
Are you disappointed to see the old name disappear? Or is this simply
the process of history? Make
your comment below
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Details »
ENQUIRIES
01543
434390
eMAIL museum@rhqstaffords.fsnet.co.uk
WEB SITE www.army.mod.uk/staffords
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Information
»
Some four room-areas with lots of glass cases containing uniforms, badges, ancient
documents, pictures and weapons. There
are relics from the Sikh Wars, the Crimea, Indian Mutiny, Zulu War, Egypt, Sudan,
South Africa and both World Wars.
The medals display includes eight of the
thirteen VCs awarded to men of the regiment and see
the tale of Private Wilf Wright come to life with the touch of a button.
(See our Jack
Baskeyfield VC page)
Outside there are armoured
vehicles, two Anderson Shelters and 100 yards of a replica 1st WW trench with
sound effects & No-Mans-Land.
The regimental archive
and library are held on site and may be viewed by appointment with the Museum
Office.
If you wish to support the museum, you can join the Friends of the Regiment
organisation- contact: Philip Holmes
Review
- our Tourism man Harry Butt gives us his opinion of the Museum»
At first it seems very old-fashioned with the traditional glass-case approach
and the kind of musty smell of old things. This atmosphere is made even more quiet
because, as the museum is located so off the beaten track, there are no passers-by
just dropping in.
But, weirdly, I found this made the place even more
an experience. The horrific details and the tragedies of the life of the ordinary
soldier down the centuries became even more poignant studied in this reverential
air. Some of the stories of individuals - beautifully collected by the way - became
even sadder.
The replica WW1 trench outside the museum building is even
more evocative - especially on a bleak and grey wintry day! With a little imagination,
you can try to share what the ordinary Tommy's life must have been like.
Incidentally, though kids will like the vehicles and the trench, the displays
may not be up their street, so phone in advance to see if the Museum is having
a day when kids can try on uniforms, do drawings etc.
HB
Opinion»
The Staffords will soon give up their individuality to be merged into the new
"Mercian Regiment" in 2006. See full
story
Are you disappointed to see the old name disappear? Or is this simply
the process of history? Make your comment below |
Features»
The
Staffordshire Regiment is 300 years old as of 2005 - so BBC radio reporter
Tim Beech went along to discover more about the life of the museum.
He compiled
four reports for us - which you can hear here...
History»
See details of Dave
Cooper's book - a history about the 300 Years of the Regiment
|
Have
your say on the Staffordshire Regiment and its Museum»
Have you been to the Regimental Museum itself? What do you think of it?
Do
you have memories of life in the regiment?
and....
How do you react to news of the merging of the regiment with other
regiments to become the Mercian Regiment? See
full story |
Disbanding
of The Staffords.
I served 12 years with the Staffords. I joined in 1978 at Lichfield
Barracks as a junior. Joined the rear details of the regiment at Colchester before
flying out for an 18 month tour of Londonderry. All my family have served in the
armed forces, and I am proud of the fact that a direct decendent of mine served
in the defeat of the Spanish armarda.
I think that its an outrage and complete
folly to be disbanding a Regiment such as this. As with all these sort of decisions,
by the time it has been proven it will be to late. The nameless civil servents
will have moved on to their next monumental mistake! You only have to see the
sterling service the Regiment has always deliverd, in whichever circumstances
it has been asked to serve in to realise you have a Regiment that is, to borrow
from my fathers old Regiment "SECOND TO NON!"
This ought to be stopped!
Andrew Stuart-Thompson
Telford
|
Staffs
Regt to disappear
I
read the news with horror. To think that so much history is wiped away with the
stroke of a pen is shocking.
There is much to share with the Cheshires, but
a "mercian" regiment? I for one am saddened.
John Taylor
Rugeley
|
Staffs
Regt Museum
The museum
is not quite what you expect, being not in some grand baronial hall, but in a
temporary building in the grounds of Whittington Barracks. Also, it’s smaller
than I expected – if there were more than thirty visitors at any one time
it would be quite crowded, being only the size of the floor space of a decent
terraced house. Still...... it was warm, and comfortingly old-fashioned.Outside
is the really impressive bit – the re-creation of a first world war trench.
You can wander the lines, and peer over the “top” to see the sickening
sight of masses of barbed wire – which the soldiers had to get through well
before they could charge enemy lines. Many never made it of course – at the
Battle of the Somme, for instance, the Allies were not able to blow apart the
barbed wire and men simply had to thrust their way through it. If they could.
I
never realised until afterwards that there were sound effects in the trench too
if you requested them; this wasn’t made clear. The
Staffords, and the ancestor regiments to them, have been everywhere. From the
Zulu War to the Crimea to South America to the two world wars and Northern Ireland
they seem to have been at every battle front. The only fight they seemed to have
missed was the Korean war where the regiment was not posted until after fighting
was over. The
letters and photos are the most interesting to someone like me who couldn’t
care less what the regimental badge was in the 1890s. They outlined the amazing
lengths to which duty took many ordinary men. To read about Coltman VC, the most
decorated ordinary soldier ever in the British Army, was a sobering experience.
And
indeed, What I found fascinating was the invisible hand of the curator. This could
have been a history of the glory and great men of the regiment and its battle
honours, but in fact many of the exhibits are designed to remind us of the horror
and hellishness of soldiering, and of its all to frequent end.
The life and
privations of the ordinary soldier – and you wonder sometimes how they could
have stood what they stood – is my abiding memory of this visit.
Joel
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