Royal Anglian Museum

Among the many things that are in the office is this. It has been tucked away on the top shelf since I started but as we are now doing our best to have things checked and accessioned, it has come down from the shelf to be cataloged and stored at our reserve collection soon.

The December Object of the Month is now installed. I wanted to make this month a bit festive to I am featuring all the RegimentaChristmas cards I could find. One that was drawn did have a drawn naked woman depicted on the wall which I carefully covered up.

Did a radiation course at the NAM, it was really informative and dare I say fun! Loved the activities like this Velcro page to put objects within the right cabinet for safety!

On November 10th I had a cadet group come in for a day to learn and lay a wreath on the memorial. I also had some support from the Regimental Support Team (pictured here). The cadets really enjoyed the day and it is always really appreciated to have support from the Regiment!

There are many jobs on site to do, and some are quite basic! As part of taking care of the exhibitions I also do things such as change light bulbs! As much as I enjoy doing research and being creative with exhibitions there is something about these manual jobs I really enjoy too!

Why am I ordering plush bunnies you ask? Well there is a story in Aden to Afghanistan about one of these being on tour with Major Bev Alan! So I decided to add a couple around the museum to tell the story and engage with the younger audiences.

Really happy with how this turned out! I asked one of the on site technicians if he could make a donations box out of a 25 pounder shell, and he produced this! It now hangs on the wall at our entrance and is a bit more interesting than the old plastic one that was on the counter.

From the arrival of the first people to the last visitors to the memorial, it was a lovely day of Remembrance at the memorial. Thank you to all who came and the band did a splendid job. We wil

I was given the idea by Andy Thomas to commemorate Operation Grapple and would like to do a few Objects dedicated to this starting in May. If anyone has stories and accompanying pictures or memorabilia they are willing to loan the museum, please get in touch!

There have been so many research questions this month! This one was to find a newspaper clipping from 1975, so I had a good look through this box and found some treasures.

Scaffolding is up to give the memorial a clean and rejig before the Remembrance service this Sunday. Hope to see you there.

If anyone is interested there is a talk happening in Cambridge from Jeremy Paxman!

The cadets have also dropped off a stack of no. 2 dress uniform for us which is great as its all in smaller sizes for dress up. Its a great new addition for our education collection.

IT problems! The honours and remembrance interactive had a glytch! luckily it was just a restart needed and not me on the phone with the IT for hours!

While cleaning the cases i had a quick clean of these and put them back. Its amazing how dusty objects get! We now have a certain amount of days of cleaning with the IWM conservation team and I am looking forward to our next day!

Went to Bury St Edmunds last weekend and found this in the rose garden in the park. Always nice to see a little memorial to our regiment as our regimental chapel is in Bury.

Had a visit from one of my closest cadet groups in Royston to have a chat about how we can work together in the future. They also dropped off some of these to add to the museum! I always feel cadets help our youth out in so many ways even if they don't want to join the army.

As this month was Canadian Thanksgiving (and I'm Canadian) I thought I would take the opportunity to give thanks to everyone on this page. So many of you answer my posts, donated objects, and volunteered at airshows. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I often get research inquiries into the museum, and enjoy spending the time helping solve questions and often learn a thing or two. Last week I was asked to find pictures of any Drum Majors from the first Battalion, and I had to say I really enjoyed it!

Had a visit last Friday from Jan Hawkins who brought me L/Cpl Alex Hawkins mess dress and a picture. It was so nice to meet her and very chilling when I realised he would be my age today. Would love to hear any stories about Alex if you have any.