Recent Acquisitions

Emergency Rations

An unopened pack of soldier’s emergency rations dated October 1904.  The contents of the pack consist of four ounces of meat and protein extracts and four ounces of cocoa paste.  This pack also has its original instruction labels on when a soldier is allowed to eat the contents, as well as having recipes for making soup and hot chocolate with the contents.

Japanese Sword

A Japanese sword captured in the Second World War and permitted to be kept as a souvenir.  It has been estimated that the sword was made in the seventeenth century and may have even been used by a Japanese soldier during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.  The hand guard is made out of iron and has been decorated with engravings and thin treads of gold.

Personal Mine Extraction Kit

An unused kit used by British soldiers in Afghanistan to help locate buried mine and IED’s for removal and disposal.  The kit carried in the camouflaged pouch worn around the waist contains mine probes and a selection of coloured pegs to help mark where a mine is located and areas where it is safe to walk.

ASC Sweetheart Brooch

A simple brooch made out of a brass Army Service Corps button.  What makes this brooch in unique in that its owner was working as a typist for The ASC during the First World War in which her fiancé served in The Royal Engineers.  It is possible that she wore this badge more as a badge to show she was a member of The Army Service Corps rather than as a memento from a man fighting in another country.

Medal group to Warrant Officer Class II Doyle GM, RLC

On 4 July 2002, then SSgt Doyle (later WOII), was tasked by the Joint Service EOD Operations Centre to the scene of an explosion at the Royal Ordnance Factory at Bridgewater. An explosion in a processing plant resulted in explosive materials becoming lodged in machinery and spread around the factory floor. The materials were highly unstable but could not be destroyed where they lay because of the proximity of other dangerous substances in the factory.

Working for over 30 hours in bulky protective clothing, SSgt Doyle was forced to move the explosives to a safe place where they could be flushed out and made safe. For his courage and professionalism SSgt Doyle was awarded the George Medal.