The Rifles (Berkshire and Wiltshire) Museum - Salisbury

Ladies/Gents

My name is Mac and I am a volunteer at the Rifles (Berkshire and Wiltshire) Museum, the Wardrobe, Salisbury, Wiltshire. [Called the Wardrobe because that the name given in its early days by the Bishop of Salisbury – It is located next to the cathedral]. We look after the old Royal Berkshire Regiment (49th/66th) and Wiltshire Regiment (62nd/99th). The element that will be of interest to forum members is the 99th (Lanarkshire) Regiment as they were the only part of our forming regiments that fought against the Zulus. My reason for making this post is to bring to your attention our website at www.thewardrobe.org.uk where a significant amount of the museum collection is shown. What you will see is in place because of a lot of work by the volunteers and with the museum authorities taking the view that everything on each soldier is important therefore will be shown. (Hence all the medal collection is shown). My small part in this plan is to accession/identify and describe as best I am able everything that comes in. In addition (my favourite) bit is to revisit all the Regimental photographic albums and arrange for another volunteer to scan or re-photograph each and every photo from within the album and place them in ‘The collection’. I recently completed some photo albums that originated from officers of the 99th Regiment and as you would expect there are items of interest as far as it relates to the Zulu wars. Many of the images we uncovered will be familiar to forum members but a lot of the portrait images of soldiers may not be. In some cases I was the first person to open some of these albums for maybe a hundred years or more. (I now know what it must feel like to open the Egyptian tombs). If I tell you we have somewhere in the region of 200/250 albums to work through you can see the extent of the regimental historical gems that are hidden. In order to have a look at what we have, once you are in the site click on THE COLLECTION under research services, then UNIT, then 99th (The first one), this will show there are 522 items to view, either select all and work through or if you wish to cut it down use the drop down box and select 99th Regiment then ‘object date’ to cover the dates you maybe interested in. Repeat with 2nd Battalion Wiltshire Regiment because a number of the Zulu War veterans appear later under that designation. (I apologize in advance for giving these instructions but the museum has been criticized for having a rather cumbersome search facility which in some cases puts people off. That I’m afraid is down to cash, but I’m happy to report that behind the scenes the site is being upgraded which will in turn make the collection better to get into and find what you are looking for), watch this space.

Hope that will be of interest – Good hunting

Cheers

Hi Mac

Many thanks for the info

The Wardrobe is full of interesting Zulu War bits & Pieces :)

If we wanted to purchase any of the photographs, could you arrange a discount?

1879Graves

Mac thanks very much for dropping in. It’s always good to get a reply. Please feel free to promote your site, as I’m sure a lot of members will most certainly be interested in your site. Please keep up the good work.


https://www.thewardrobe.org.uk/guestbook.php

Admin. Its good to see how promoting sites can help each other. I had never heard of this site, but my god there is some interesting information on there. Mac thanks for joining. You never know we might organise a trip to the museum in the summer. Maybe meet up for a meal and few drinks after.

G.

Mac. Great website thanks for posting the link.

hi mac .
I just managed to spend nearly 2 hours on your site and I was trying to be quick !. I looked at the
194 items under " 1879 ". thanks very much for posting the site , and welcome aboard .
I"m sure you will get many inquiries !.
cheers 90th.

Mac. Great website. Spend a few hours this morning taking a look. Keep-up the good work.

Gents

Refrence the origional message I can now report that the Website has been upgraded and contains a lot more (after a lot of work). Clearly the main focus is the 99th Regiment. We volunteers at the museum are continuing to add to the site and hopefully it will be added to as and when the trustees are happy.

Cheers

MAC

Hi Mac.
I have clicked on the above link. And getting

"We're sorry but we couldn't find the page you requested.
The page you're looking for couldn't be found.
You might be able to find the page you want on the site map, or by using the search form at the top of the page."

Can you post the link you use.

Hi impi

Try this link

http://www.thewardrobe.org.uk/research/the-collection

Hi Mac
Wonderful site and much to see , you have all done a sensational job to have it up and running . Well worth
having a look for those yet to do so .
cheers 90th.

Mac

I very impressive and interesting website. Congratulations to all involved in creating it, as well as to the people who curate the collections.

Regards
Brett