Royal Engineers Museum

02/12/2023

Our pick from the archive for Day 8’s theme of Challenge is a classic Tug of War. These photographs of games and sports are from Lucy Mary Isabel Thompson's photograph album, documenting her time in France in 1916-1919 whilst serving with the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps (4/155).

Women of QMAAC served with the Royal Engineers Signals service in France as telegraphists and telephone exchange operators, just like Lucy.



Pictures:
1. Tug’o’war team at Rouen (4/155/50)
2. Tug of war (4/155/56)
3. The two legged race (4/155/51)
4. Playing hockey at the beach in Boulogne (4/155/108)
5. QMAAC women in uniform, with signallers arm bands (4/155/43)

01/12/2023

The Museum will be closed on Thursday 7th December, and will re-open as normal on Friday 8th.

01/12/2023

It is Day 7 of and our theme is ‘Hobbies’! The Sappers were never short of a hobby or two, though some may now be questionable (hunting anyone?). These images from the 1890s show the theatrical side of our Corps, who never seemed to shy away from the limelight to entertain their fellow troops!

These photographs are part of an album belonging to Edward Wilmshurst, who enlisted in 1890 and served for 21 years, being recalled for the First World War. He served in Malta, Egypt, Hong Kong, Gold Coast, Singapore and at Home. We also hold other photographs and archive material relating to his service.

To book an appointment to view these items or other material in the collection please go to our website: Contact Us - Royal Engineers Museum (re-museum.co.uk)

01/12/2023

Our newest exhibition is now open, and runs until the 23rd of December. Gurkha Sappers celebrates the culture, architecture, uniforms & weapons of this unique fighting force.

Come and immerse yourself in 75 years of the incredible history of the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers at the RE Museum, Gillingham!

Visit www.re-museum.co.uk for details on how to get here.

30/11/2023

Day 6 of week is Art. The Museum has quite a large collection of art, from small doodles to large-scale oil paintings, from amateur to professional. However, for this I wanted to focus on the drawings of Birkin Haward, a member of 82 Assault Squadron during World War Two. This collection of drawings, maps and photographs chart the Squadron’s movements in Northern Europe from D-day through to the end of the War.

A trained architect, Birkin was a compulsive sketcher and upon his arrival in Normandy, he acquired a thin-papered sketchbook and pencils from an abandoned local post office. Using these materials, he was able to draw in the quieter times throughout the campaign.

The drawings were originally compiled to produce a commemorative booklet for 82 Assault Squadron’s activities in WWII and depict various scenes from night assaults on South Beveland, assaults on Walcheren, river crossings, ceasefire celebrations, crumbling towns and decimated landscapes.

To book an appointment to view these drawings or other material in the collection please go to our website: www.re-museum.co.uk.

29/11/2023

29/11/2023

Day 5 of looks at the theme of .

Our archives are full of unique personal memories – diaries, letters, and memoirs of Royal Engineers and those associated with their work. One story is that of Mrs. Miriam Green, the wife of Colonel William Green the Chief Engineer at the time of the Siege of Gibraltar in 1779-1783. We hold three of her diaries that she kept during the siege (5601.49.1). In the photos attached is her entry for 7 June 1780, and begins as follows:

“This morning, at half past one, the Garrison was alarm’d by the appearance of some Fire Ships…They were all driving towards the back of the Rock – it was a most Grand, tho’ Alarming Sight – as they burnt with great Violence – it seem’d to me, just so many moving mountains of Fire!”

28/11/2023

28/11/2023

For Day 4 of week, the theme is Small. One of our Collection Officer’s favourite donations from the last few years is a Pigeon Capsule and a message from the First World War (202205.7). The aluminium capsule is light as a feather and 3 cm long. The message dated July 1918 reports enemy movements and aerial activity.

The Royal Engineers Signals Corps relied on the carrier pigeon service to convey messages quickly and over great distances. Pigeons flew from Battalion headquarters or posts in the trenches to Division or Corps Headquarters, passing on information and orders. By the war's conclusion, there were around 22,000 pigeons in service, 150 mobile lofts, and 400 pigeoneers. Messages were passed by pigeon in the army, navy, and air force with hundreds of messages taking wing over the course of a battle.

REMuseum

27/11/2023

Day 3’s theme for week is BIG! We automatically knew what we wanted to use for this one but it did involve a little creativity with the term ‘big’. While the actual archives themselves may not be BIG, they were used to create Mulberry Harbour, which definitely was!

The floating harbours were designed and constructed to ensure a successful breakout from the beachhead immediately after D-Day. The harbour had the capacity to move thousands of tons of supplies, vehicles, tanks and men from ship to shore each day.

To learn more about this and the role of the Royal Engineers in war and peacetime over the last 300 years, visit the museum. For details on opening hours please go to our website www.re-museum.co.uk.

27/11/2023

Did you know the museum is available as a filming location? Our Grade 2 Edwardian building, once used as the home of the electrical engineers' school, it became the home of the Royal Engineers Museum in 1987. This location is available to rent for filming and photoshoots.

To find out more, please contact us through the contact form on our main webpage by visiting www.re-museum.co.uk/contact-us/

26/11/2023

Well that’s Wartime Christmas over for another year, thanks so much to everyone who came along and made it such a fantastic weekend! We can’t wait to see you with something extra special next year.

26/11/2023

On the second day of week, we are looking at Expedition. The Engineers have been part of many expeditions throughout their existence but we wanted to focus on the 20th Century for this one. Hence, these wonderfully evocative images of an expedition to Mount Everest in 1960. Unfortunately, we have no information about this album; no idea who the donor was, who the men are or who took the photographs but it looks like a great trip!

To book an appointment to view this album or other material in the collection please go to our website:
Contact Us - Royal Engineers Museum (re-museum.co.uk)

26/11/2023

This year at Wartime Christmas we’re bigger and better than ever. Here’s a map for our days stalls and exhibitions. We can’t wait to see you all today!

25/11/2023

Come along this weekend to the Royal Engineers Museum to hear the sounds of the 40s from Miss Holiday Swing!

Held at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham, during the weekend of the 25/26th November. It's an event you won't want to miss; whether you're a history buff looking to indulge in some time travel, or searching for some last-minute crafty gifts, you're sure to find something for you.

We've got sellers of vintage and retro clothing, treats, and crafts, as well as fantastic local produce and beverages. You'll also have a chance to meet Sapper Santa, hear from living history groups, historical experts, test your aim on our new firing range and enjoy the evocative sounds of the 40’s.

Tickets are priced at the regular museum rate and valid for a year (that means if you've been within the last year, your museum ticket will still give you access to this event for free!!).

Visit www.re-museum.co.uk to find out how to get here!

25/11/2023

The Wartime Christmas weekend at the RE Museum is on today (and tomorrow)!

We've got sellers of vintage and retro clothing, treats, and crafts, as well as fantastic local produce and beverages. You'll also have a chance to meet Sapper Santa, hear from living history groups, historical experts, test your aim on our new firing range and enjoy the evocative sounds of the 40’s.

Held on the 25th and 26th of November (from 10am-5pm, with final museum entry at 4pm) at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham. It's an event you won't want to miss; whether you're a history buff looking to indulge in some time travel, or searching for some last-minute crafty gifts, you're sure to find something for you.

Tickets are priced at the regular museum rate and are valid for a year (that means if you've been within the last year, your museum ticket will still give you access to this event for free!!).

25/11/2023

To start off Focus week is the theme of Tradition. Here is a photograph of Captain Geoffrey Frake at his wedding to Jessie Nix in November 1946. Captain Frake worked in bomb disposal in the Second World War and was particularly well known for having diffused a ‘Hermann’ bomb (1,000 kg!) in Croydon in 1946. Don’t miss the bomb cake decorations on the wedding cake! (23/945)

24/11/2023

We’re almost done setting up for Wartime Christmas this weekend, and we can’t wait to see you all.

The Wartime Christmas weekend at the RE Museum will be as busy as ever this year.

We've got sellers of vintage and retro clothing, treats, and crafts, as well as fantastic local produce and beverages. You'll also have a chance to meet Sapper Santa, hear from living history groups, historical experts, test your aim on our new firing range and enjoy the evocative sounds of the 40’s.

Held on the 25th and 26th of November (from 10am-5pm, with final museum entry at 4pm) at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham. It's an event you won't want to miss; whether you're a history buff looking to indulge in some time travel, or searching for some last-minute crafty gifts, you're sure to find something for you.

Tickets are priced at the regular museum rate and valid for a year (that means if you've been within the last year, your museum ticket will still give you access to this event for free!!).

24/11/2023

The Wartime Christmas weekend at the RE Museum will be as busy as ever this year.

We've got sellers of vintage and retro clothing, treats, and crafts, as well as fantastic local produce and beverages. You'll also have a chance to meet Sapper Santa, hear from living history groups, historical experts, test your aim on our new firing range and enjoy the evocative sounds of the 40’s.

Held on the 25th and 26th of November (from 10am-5pm, with final museum entry at 4pm) at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham. It's an event you won't want to miss; whether you're a history buff looking to indulge in some time travel, or searching for some last-minute crafty gifts, you're sure to find something for you.

Tickets are priced at the regular museum rate and valid for a year (that means if you've been within the last year, your museum ticket will still give you access to this event for free!!).

24/11/2023

Booked today to appear for another wartime event next year so far our wartime Bomb Disposal school has been invited to Battles Through History
Betteshanger Park wartime event and the Folkestone & Ashford Military Show not to mention all the many heritage sites and historical buildings you'll hear all about we're sure.
If you can't wait though, don't forget we're at the Royal Engineers Museum this weekend all weekend with lots of Bomb Disposal interactive learning and maybe just a bit of respectful fun at their Wartime Christmas event which is always bustling and busy, packed like a Christmas Stocking with stalls, reenactors and things to see and do. See you there

23/11/2023

While we love to see visitors dressed in vintage/period costumes, we would ask the public not to dress in any form of Wehrmacht/Nazi regalia as this is a family Christmas event (anyone attending in such outfits will be refused entry).

23/11/2023

This Wartime Christmas weekend (25/26th November), we will have a fantastic selection of Queen of Bakes sandwiches and sweet treats.

Come along to indulge yourself in our cafe.

22/11/2023

If you're after something sweet and caffeine-free to drink for Christmas, we might just have the answer; at this year's Wartime Christmas event (25/26th November) we have Frooteaz stalling out. Frooteaz are caffeine, preservative and colouring-free. They are vegan-friendly and prepared from 77-79g of fruit per 100g, and made using local products from farms in Kent.

The Wartime Christmas weekend at the RE Museum will be as busy as ever this year. We've got sellers of vintage and retro clothing, treats, and crafts, as well as locally produced food and drinks. You'll also have a chance to meet Sapper Santa, and hear from living history groups and historical experts.

Held on the 25th and 26th of November (from 10am-5pm, with final museum entry at 4pm) at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham, it's an event you won't want to miss, whether you're a history buff looking to indulge in some time travel, or you're looking for some last minute crafty gifts, you're sure to find something for you.

Tickets are the regular museum rate, and are valid for a year (that means if you've been within the last year, your museum ticket will still give you access to this event for free!!).

22/11/2023

This year at Wartime Christmas we've got lots of great display groups, and stands. One of the great local (less than 3 miles away) producers attending our Wartime Christmas event is the Dockyard Jam Factory.

The award-winning Dockyard Jam Factory is located in Rochester, where they handcraft fruit preserves using only the finest ingredients and time-honoured methodology. Many of their ingredients are sourced from family-owned farms dedicated to sustainable farming practices or foraged locally. Their relationships with their suppliers allow them access to the season’s freshest fruits possible, as well as ensuring quality by minimising the time and steps from farm to jar.

The Wartime Christmas weekend at the RE Museum will be as busy as ever this year. We've got sellers of vintage and retro clothing, treats, and crafts, as well as locally produced food and drinks. You'll also have a chance to meet Sapper Santa, and hear from living history groups and historical experts.

Held on the 25th and 26th of November (from 10am-5pm, with final museum entry at 4pm) at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham, it's an event you won't want to miss, whether you're a history buff looking to indulge in some time travel, or you're looking for some last minute crafty gifts, you're sure to find something for you.

Tickets are the regular museum rate, and are valid for a year (that means if you've been within the last year, your museum ticket will still give you access to this event for free!!).

22/11/2023

If you've got a sweet tooth you only have a few days to wait before you can pick up some treats from Major Bakes at the Royal Engineers museum Wartime Christmas Weekend!

Only 3 days left to go until Wartime Christmas! Held 25th and 26th of November at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham.

21/11/2023

Maidstone Lindyhoppers will be at Wartime Christmas again this year, with plenty of music and dancing to really make the day go with a swing.

The Wartime Christmas weekend at the RE Museum will be as busy as ever this year. We've got sellers of vintage and retro clothing, treats, and crafts, as well as locally produced food and drinks. You'll also have a chance to meet Sapper Santa, and hear from living history groups and historical experts.

Held on the 25th and 26th of November (from 10am-5pm, with final museum entry at 4pm) at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham, it's an event you won't want to miss, whether you're a history buff looking to indulge in some time travel, or you're looking for some last minute crafty gifts, you're sure to find something for you.

Tickets are the regular museum rate, and are valid for a year (that means if you've been within the last year, your museum ticket will still give you access to this event for free!!).

21/11/2023

Only days left to go until Wartime Christmas! 25th and 26th of November at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham.

Watch out for scale model remote control tanks patrolling the museum Saturday and Sunday, courtesy of Southeast Tanks Scale Model Club.

20/11/2023

Wartime Christmas at the Royal Engineers is fast approaching (25th and 26th of November). Once again, we have The Copper Rivet Distillery who are just around the corner from the RE Museum and produce a variety of spirits, from its famous range of Gins to Vodka and Whisky.

The Copper Rivet Distillery is a Medway-based craft distillery that draws upon the area's rich tradition of innovation and craft. The team toil together to produce small batches of exceptional gins, whiskies and vodkas from scratch in bespoke stills with the same skill that local artisans once fashioned world-class ships.

20/11/2023

Once again, we've got live music from Miss Holiday Swing this year at Wartime Christmas Weekend. 25th & 26th of November (from 10am-5pm, with final museum entry at 4pm) at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham.

19/11/2023

Guess who's coming to Wartime Christmas?

Sapper Santa will be making time in his busy schedule to see all the young engineers during the Wartime Christmas weekend, the 25th and 26th November.

Each visit to Sapper Santa is £3, and includes a gift and a hearty Ho! Ho! Ho! in Santa's cottage.

17/11/2023

This year at Wartime Christmas we've got lots of great display groups, and stands. Russell Palmer of Hysterical History is one of the fantastic educators we've got attending, where he will be covering bomb disposal in the RE during WW2.

The Wartime Christmas weekend at the RE Museum will be as busy as ever this year. We've got sellers of vintage and retro clothing, treats, and crafts, as well as locally produced comestibles and drinks. You'll also have a chance to meet Sapper Santa, and hear from living history groups and historical experts.

Held on the 25th and 26th of November (from 10am-5pm, with final museum entry at 4pm) at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham, it's an event you won't want to miss, whether you're a history buff looking to indulge in some time travel, or you're looking for some last-minute crafty gifts, you're sure to find something for you.

Tickets are the regular museum rate [wwwre-museum.co.uk], and are valid for a year (that means if you've been within the last year, your museum ticket will still give you access to this event for free!!).

16/11/2023

Sgt Leonard Hollands GM, Royal Engineers, was awarded the George Medal for gallantry in bomb disposal work in a citation dated 16 November 1943. The citation for gallantry reads:

Sgt Hollands was engaged continuously from the 14-22 June 1943, on intensive bomb disposal operations following the enemy air raid on Grimsby & Cleethorpes on the morning of the 14 June 1943. During this period he dealt with 56 fully armed 2 Kilogram anti-personnel bombs, most of which were in unstable positions, difficult to access, & fuzed to detonate on the slightest movement. On 16 June 1943, a bomb in the circle of a cinema had been covered with sandbags by wardens in misinterpretation of their instructions. Although risk of denotation was involved, it was necessary to remove the sandbags in order to deal with the bomb, he attempted to do this by remote control by means of tackle. The friction on the tackle was too great & the Sgt entered the false roof over the bomb to pull from a nearer position. On his first pull the bomb detonated, he only escaped possible fatal injury through the screening effect of the sandbags. On 17 June, a bomb was balanced on the edge of the gutter of a school. To place a demolition charge, he crawled along the sloping roof at considerable risk of slipping onto the bomb or of dislodging a slate which would have caused a detonation. 4 other bombs fell on the Tramway Depot. In order to minimise damage to nearby buildings, the Sgt built sandbag screening walls. This was an extremely hazardous task as one false step on a rocking rafter could have caused the detonation of one or more bombs. Sgt Hollands successfully laid charges and detonated the bombs, the resultant total damage being only 2 broken windows.

To learn more about men like Sgt Hollands check out our Bomb disposal galleries, full details on how to visit can be found here: www.re-museum.co.uk/visit-us.

15/11/2023

Thank you to everyone who has shown an interest in Wartime Christmas, but we have now filled all of our trade and exhibitor spaces.

Watch this space for info about some of the traders and exhibitors who will be there on this exciting weekend event....

13/11/2023

The theme for November is Inclusion. The Royal Engineers team has been very busy lately redisplaying three cases in our permanent galleries as part of the Making African Connections project. These cases relate to the Royal Engineers in Sudan during Sudan’s Mahdiyya period (1881-1898). Here is a look at some of the photographs and documents that will be a part of these displays.

This project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to research historic African collections held in Sussex and Kent Museums, and supported by the University of Sussex. It has allowed the museum to place the Sudan collection within its historical context, with assistance from both British and Sudanese researchers and diaspora.

1. A Non-Commissioned Officers’ Headquarters in Suakin (10/196/19)
2. A fighter from the Red Sea Hills; while most clans in the region followed the Mahdi, some fought for the Egyptian colonial government and their British allies. (8709.1.1)
3. A section of the 1st Telegraph Battalion RE at Aldershot March 1885, before embarking for the Suakin Expedition (Sudan).’ (5/121) The Telegraph Battalions kept soldiers in contact using telegraph and heliographs, tripod mounted mirrors that sent flashes of sunlight in Morse Code.
4. A Rātib prayerbook, containing extracts from the Qur'an written on parchment, cased in camel hide and used by anṣār as protection against bullets. The rātib is a compendium of prayers, verses from the Qur'an and invocations of some of the 99 names of Allah, together representing a portable version of the zikr, the collective remembrance of Allah. Its chanted meditations have a mesmeric quality and are still used today. (5001.44)
5. A photograph of Sudanese men from an album belonging to Sapper J Read containing photographs of Egypt and Sudan during 1880s (8709-1-1)

11/11/2023

This weekend marks the 104th occasion a minutes silence has been held in remembrance of those who have died in conflict around the world.

The first of these remembrance services for Britain was held on the 11th November 1919, a newspaper at the time wrote:

"The first stroke of eleven produced a magical effect.

The tram cars glided into stillness, motors ceased to cough and fume, and stopped dead, and the mighty-limbed dray horses hunched back upon their loads and stopped also, seeming to do it of their own volition.

Someone took off his hat, and with a nervous hesitancy the rest of the men bowed their heads also. Here and there an old soldier could be detected slipping unconsciously into the posture of 'attention'. An elderly woman, not far away, wiped her eyes, and the man beside her looked white and stern. Everyone stood very still ... The hush deepened. It had spread over the whole city and become so pronounced as to impress one with a sense of audibility. It was a silence which was almost pain ... And the spirit of memory brooded over it all."

During the First and Second World War, over 30,000 Royal Engineers gave their lives and it is today that we remember them and every other service man and womans sacrifice, in every conflict.

07/11/2023

Lieutenant-Colonel His Honour Sir Brett Mackay Cloutman, VC, MC, QC enlisted as a Rifleman in the Rangers (12th Battalion, London Regiment), at the outbreak of the Great War, & in 1915 he was commissioned into the Kent (Fortress) Engineers (TF).

As A/Major in the 59th Field Company, Royal Engineers, he received the Military Cross:

For conspicuous gallantly & devotion to duty at Banteux on the morning of 30th September, 1918, he made a personal reconnaissance under heavy machine-gun fire to ascertain the possibilities of bridging the Canal de L'Escaut.

A few weeks later the action took place for which he won his VC (the last of the Great War):

For most conspicuous bravery on the 6th November, 1918, Maj. Cloutman, after reconnoitring the river crossings, found the Quartes Bridge almost intact but prepared for demolition. Leaving his party under cover he went forward alone, swam across the river, &, having cut the "leads" from the charges, returned the same way, despite the fact that the bridge & all approaches thereto were swept by enemy shells and machine-gun fire at close range. Although the bridge was blown up later in the day by other means, the abutments remained intact.

The bridge had been prepared for demolition by the Germans, & was well defended. By cutting the wires, Cloutman prevented the enemy from blowing it up at the time. He was seen at the bridge, however, & escaped under intense fire from its guards. That the abutments were not destroyed later meant that the bridge could be more quickly replaced by the Allies.

In World War II he served again in the Royal Engineers receiving a mention in despatches.

Following his death his ashes were interred at Norfolk Cemetery, in the grave of his brother, an officer of No. 178 Tunnelling Company who was killed on 22 August 1915.

If you’d like to see his Victoria Cross, along with 24 others, visit www.re-museum.co.uk to find out more.