Devastation of the Surrey Regiments Museum at Clandon Park

Scroll down for some photos of the devastated medal cabinets at the Surrey Regimental Museum that was housed at the destroyed National Trust Property at Clandon Park. Just imagine if Brecon suffered the same fate. Horrendous and so sad.

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Steve

A tragedy for sure . Let's hope it doesn't happen anywhere else .
90th

You would think the amount of irreplaceable valuables in these places, they would install decent fire protection.

Agreed John .
90th

That is a crying shame. I recently visited the Rifles Museum in Winchester to do some research - they have an amazing collection of medals in wood and glass display cabinets and drawers including Bullers VC group and Col Northey's medals. I would hate to think what a fire would do to those. I assume the listed nature of Clandon meant they couldnt have sprinklers in place.

The pictures have certainly made me rethink the storage of my own medal collection I would recoomend that all the collectors do the same - we are just temporary guardians of these medals and the memories of the men who earned them after all !!

Good Idea .
90th

That's the problem of keeping lots of medals and other memorabilia in just one place, it looks good in a museum, however, if there is not a good fire prevention system and a good sprinkler system, or even a good anti burglar system and a proper security system installed in the building, then there is always the chance that something disastrous can happen and everything is lost.

Maybe the families of the medal recipients should have them back and keep them in a safe place, after all, it was their relative who was awarded the medal, so really they are the true custodians of their relatives medal. The problem with that though is the real custodian of the medal might not be concerned about the historical bravery of their relative, or they could get strapped for cash and will sell it off to some unscrupulous dealer or some other chancer or fortune seeking money grabber, and it could well end up being taken out of the country of its recipient, which has indeed happened with most of the 24th (2nd Warwickshire) regiments medals that should really be in England, but most, alas, are in wales.

Museums are a good idea, but if they do not have the proper fire and burglary protection, then there is always the chance of this sort of terrible thing happening again.

Let's just hope that Lord Ashcroft has got proper fire and burglary protection for his collection of V.C's and other medals.

Here's a more detailed account of the damage to the regimental museum. Interesting that an old tradition was upheld and the Colours were saved in an heroic dash, this time by a fireman rather than Coghill and Melvill, and no Zulus involved.

Sad to see that the football kicked around at the Xmas truce in 1914 has gone.

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Steve

Steve football, not all's lost. I have held the football in the photo, many years ago when I worked at Dover Castle.

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"The Christmas Truce has captured the popular imagination to become the iconic footballing passage of the First World War. But the first ball kicked in anger during that conflict was at the Battle of Loos in 1915, and a similarly audacious act followed a year later, in July 1916, on the Somme. Occupying the foremost section of trench closest to the German line were the 7th Buffs. The 8th Norfolks were positioned to the left of them with the 7th Queens to the right. To the right of them and chosen to lead the charge were the 8th East Surreys. The Company Commander was Captain Wilfred Percy (‘Billie’) Nevill, from Twickenham, formerly of the East Yorkshire Regiment. Writing to his wife Else on June 28 1916, he described how the heavy British bombardment of the German positions failed spectacularly to destroy the enemy machine gunners. ‘As I write the shells are fairly haring over; you know one gets just sort of bemused after a few million, still it'll be a great experience to tell one's children about.’ Like Frank Edwards, a young rifleman at Loos the previous year, Nevill planned to provide his men with a reassuringly familiar rallying point, which would back at home epitomise grit, determination and raw courage, but would in Germany be viewed as a clear example of British madness.

A survivor recalling zero hour tells of how when ‘the gun-fire died away I saw an infantry man climb onto the parapet into No Man's Land, beckoning others to follow As he did, so he kicked off a football. A good kick. The ball rose and travelled well towards the German line. That seemed to be the signal to advance.’ One of Nevill’s fellow officers later wrote to his family: ‘...the company went over the top very well, with your brother kicking off the company footballs.’ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle later reported in The British Campaign in France and Flanders, 1916: ‘No sooner had the troops come out from cover than they were met by a staggering fire which held them up in the Breslau Trench. The supports had soon to be pushed up to thicken the ranks of the East Surreys - a battalion which, with the ineradicable sporting instinct and light-heartedness of the Londoner, had dribbled footballs, one for each platoon across No Man's Land and shot their goal in the front-line trench.’

Fierce fighting raged for some time around a crater formed by a mine explosion. An officer and a sergeant of the Buffs killed twelve Germans and cut off their flow of reinforcements, while half a company of the same battalion cleared up the crater and captured a machine-gun post. The brigade was making headway against hard German resistance. The objective was to attack Montauban at 10 a.m. Failure to do so meant the difference between victory and defeat. And it was at this critical moment that Captain Nevill dashed to the front, re-formed his own men and led them onwards. By 07.50 the Battalion was in the first line of German trenches. Seven of the 8th East Surreys' officers were killed in the attack, including Nevill’s second in command, Lieutenant R.E. Soames, who had kicked off the second football.

Billie Nevill himself lay dead just outside the German wire where two footballs were found the following day. "

Pete

Your quite right. I should have read the article more closely; the football lost at Clandon was the one the East Surreys  kicked across no-mans land on the Somme. Beggars belief.

PS The Somme battlefield is one I have walked, and still there is ordnance everywhere. I once walked up from the Connaught Cemetery at Thiepval Wood towards the German line at the Schwaben Redoubt and literally kicked over a clip of British 303. Those fields are as atmospheric as I imagine Isandlwana to be.

Steve

Agreed Steve , although I've kicked plenty of dirt around here on the plain , found NOUGHT !!!! . . Although if I did find anything I'd leave it where I found it !! , It's Illegal here to purloin anything one may discover , us Aussies are an honest bunch after all !!! LOL .
90th