With interest in the museum still at a high following BBC1’s Antiques Roadshow D-Day Special feature on the Stan Hollis VC, The Green Howards Museum will be inviting the public to a Bring | Show | Tell event this coming Saturday.
Home to 35,000 objects, The Green Howards Museum has more than a few stories to tell, so with experts on hand, the museum is keen to hear the tales behind the public’s treasured old militaria objects and collectables.
The Militaria Showcase: A Bring | Show | Tell event invites the people of Yorkshire and the North East to add a little more colour to their own mystery militaria objects. Whether it’s a uniform button, dog tag, a letter, or a regimental cap badge, Angus Ashworth and the experts from the York Army Museum will be ready to give some insight into that special or unusual historical piece of family history. Naturally, as a family-friendly event, the museum is asking that no weapons be brought into the building but the experts will no doubt have their hands full with plenty of enigmatic and obscure curiosities!
Speaking of the exciting upcoming event, Chief Executive Officer, Emma Woods MBE, said: ‘It’s always wonderful to welcome a Green Howards veteran to the museum and this event gave us the perfect opportunity to invite Angus, also a former Green Howard, back to the museum to cast his expert eye over the objects at the event. We’re thrilled to be welcoming him and it promises to be a fun and interesting day.’
Regular viewers of television's The Yorkshire Auction House will be familiar with Angus, the owner of Ryedale Auctioneers at Kirkbymoorside on the edge of the North Yorks moors. As a former Green Howards Territorial Army infantry officer, Angus served in Iraq and Afghanistan before setting up the auction house in 2010. Since then, its regular under-the-hammer success with all kinds of antiques, collectables and militaria has made it a very popular choice for those wanting to pick up something interesting for their own collections. The Green Howards Museum - with more than a few bits and pieces in its own collection - is the perfect place to find out more about that latest little find!
As a military museum in the heart of Richmond’s Market Place and with many decades of strong regimental connections rooted in the town, The Green Howards Museum accepts many donations and loans for its collections and exhibitions. Amongst such donations and loans are centrepieces from the current D-Day 80 Exhibition, including the Victoria Cross of CSM Stanley Hollis VC - the only soldier to be awarded the VC on D-Day - and the dog tags of 98-year-old Private Ken Cooke, one of the last surviving veterans of 6th June 1944. The museum’s vast collection of 35,000 objects, including the rather dazzling display of 4,500 medals in The Harrison Room, is testament to thousands of individual, personal stories of valour and sacrifice in times of conflict – and it’s the personal stories behind objects that are the focus of the Militaria Showcase event.
Head of Collections, Zoe Utley, said: ‘Our connections to old objects we’ve either inherited or purchased are often complex. Sometimes, we know quite a bit about that army cap handed down to us by a great aunt or that letter written by a grandfather serving overseas some eighty years ago, but more often than not, we know very little about an object that caught our eye in the charity shop or car boot sale. Even if we can’t find out too much about previous owners, this special Militaria Showcase: A Bring, Show, Tell event promises to be an enlightening insight into the object itself. We expect it to be busy day so please go to our website and book a slot online or call the museum.’
The Green Howards Museum Militaria Showcase: A Bring, Show, Tell event will be held on Saturday 14th September 11am – 3pm
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