Queen's own Royal West Kent Regiment Museum & Help for Heroes Fundraising

One of Kent's Military Museums is celebrating its 50th year of being open to the public this year. A few years ago the last CO & curator died and the collection being based in Maidstone Museum was handed over to the Museum & Borough Council to run & administer. In the current day and age of Budget cuts & credit crunch threats to the public sector this could be a worry. However Maidstone Museum won a bid from the Heritage Lottery fund to expand its display area which was desperatly needed, as although it is the Museum of Maidstone it also in all reality  the 'Kent County Museum' with collections from all over Kent also given display space ' from Dinosaurs to the best Japanese collection outside of London'!

While the redevelopment of the museum will take place over the next couple of years and affect availability and display of some material, the West Kent's room in the museum will remain open and indeed much is planned to celebrate the regiments history & the military history of Maidstone.

Now as my scanner isn't coping with the leaflet very well I will post & advertise each of the events on this blog and will look into redesigning this blog to enable anyone to access information on Kent Military Museums & military sites of interest. I wil probably start a seperate Kent Military History blog and link from Victory V & use it to provide information for visitors to the County.

Also on the museum 'breaking news' page is the following article :
Somme to Staplehurst Walk

A group of five local men will be undertaking the challenge of walking approximately 150 miles from the Somme in France back to Staplehurst in Kent to raise money for the Help the Heroes Charity. This event is registered with the Help for Heroes charity and will take place between 10th April to 17th April 2010. One of the men taking part is a descendant of Thomas Harris whose Victoria Cross medal is on display in the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regimental Museum. The men taking part themselves have 29 years service with The 2nd Battalion, the Queens Regiment.

The event is listed on the Help for Heroes website in the national events/Kent section. Reading this link made me aware what everyone is doing for the charity perhaps us Bloggers should think about some kind of blogging event .....perhaps a sponsored blog day where people who read our articles donate via Just Giving towards the Charity? Thoughts??

If you would like to make a contribution by sponsoring the Somme to Staplehurst event, then this can be done by the Just Giving website.

Medway Model Show - the Photo's of Some Superb Models

A small superb model show is held annually at the Royal Engineers Museum every year on the first weekend in September. It is organised by Medway Modelling Society and Kevin Nunn who used to own Beaney's Model Shop of Sittingbourne (sadly no more,next owner couldn't 'make a go of it') Kevin is a huge modelling enthusiast and has close connections with Airfix, runs his own model business Brigade Models (yup another one with that name! which specialises in 1/48th Spitfire Conversions)and Product Development & Advertising manager for Aviation Workshop Publications.Kevin always knows the latest 'new model release news' and above all he encourages young people into the hobby, at the Medway show children were being assisited in building free Airfix kits and I think this is a very important part of the Scale Modelling/Wargaming hobby that all of us should encourage.



I prefer shows situated at a Museum as you can also look at the exhibits and the Engineers Museum is a little known gem. This father and son team display their models in the shadow of a 1:1 scale GR3 harrier it doesn't get much better than that! I can also recommend anyone to visit the Model Shows at the Fleet Air Arm Museum the next is the Autumn Model show.


The display area in the museum where various model clubs and traders had their stands all the club members were friendly and willing to talk about their models and give tips. The pictures tell their own story so enjoy looking at the following models. Which diorama is a full scale 1:1 exhibit at the museum!!





















I will blog more on the museum when I have revisited and can spend time looking at the exhibits properly, your admission enables you to visit again as many times as you want to for a year! Also a picture of the new Airfix 1:24 scale Mossie to follow shortly as I met Trevor Snowdon 'Mr Airfix' at the show.

Medway Model Show - Royal Engineers Museum 5/6th Sept 2009

An annual favourite'Medway Modellers Showcase' For more information:Phone 01634 822839.The Medway Modellers Club hosts their annual show at the Royal Engineers Museum with trade stands, wargames and family activities plus as a bonus it is at The Royal Engineers Museum which is Kent's only designated museum of national and international importance. It provides a fascinating insight into the debt owed by Britain to its soldier engineers from the earliest times to the present day.



'Discover the bravery and heroism of our soldier engineers With 26 galleries and 6,000 exhibits, the museum tells a fascinating story. The First and Second World War galleries give visitors a feel for life during the more gruelling parts of the 20th century. They depict the grim reality of life in the First World War trenches, the glaring beams of Second World War searchlights and offer a glimpse of a Medway family home under the threat of invasion in 1940.Displays include 55-ton tanks, a Harrier ground attack aircraft, torpedoes, bridges, models, railway locomotives, weapons, uniforms, a variety of medals (including 25 Victoria Crosses) and the very map used by the Duke of Wellington during the battle of Waterloo.The museum also has an extensive library of military history'.

The advert is a bit poor taken from the local newspaper 'whats on' and frankly the museum web site is a bit 'pants' but it is a great collection and a museum which has lots of events throughout the year with re enactors in attendance , the Zulu War being a favourite. Highly recommended to visit I intend to soon!!