It
is with great pleasure that I am able announce that the Heritage Lottery Fund
have awarded us a Stage 1 pass (which allows us to progress into detailed design)
for The John Fieldhouse Building Project.
The sum set aside for the project is £1.95M, which represents a 67% grant
towards the total cost of £2.9M, and we have also been awarded a 75% development grant of £155k, which is
available immediately. This is great news for the Museum because not only will
we able to get HMIS X24 under cover,
we will also be able to offer our visitors a genuinely high quality display in
the Submarine and Science Gallery. In
addition, for the first time ever, we will have a Temporary Exhibition Space
and a Corporate Entertainment/Lecture Area. The building will be open
mid-2004.*
The Pilgrim Trust Conservation Awards for 2002
The
Museum, in conjunction with its conservation expert, Ian Clark, has been short-listed
for the prestigious Conservation Project of the Year Award for its Conservation
and Exhibition of Holland 1 project. The result will be announced
in November.*
The Society of Friends of the
Royal Navy Submarine Museum
The
Museum’s Grant-in-Aid from the Second Sea Lord has come under some pressure,
most notably in the fact that the Acquisitions budget of £16k has been taken as
a savings measure. Somewhat ironically there have been several items that have
recently come up for auction that simply could not be ignored (among them the
Donald Cameron VC sextant), but the Museum is blessed with having an active and
highly supportive Society of Friends who have helped to ensure that the
Collection continues to be enhanced by vital elements of our Heritage. In
addition grants totalling £18,700 were received from the SoF, which contributed
to the following improvements to the Museum:
(a)
conservation of the HMS L14 periscope
(b)
staff professional training
(c)
continuing development of the Museum’s education services
(d)
the education marquee
(If
you would like to join our Society of Friends, please contact me on [email protected])*
This may be the only surviving example in the world of a WWI periscope, making it a most historically significant artefact. Manufactured by Grubb & Co (number 500) in 1918; in 1931 when the submarine was scrapped, given by Admiral Martin Dunbar-Nasmith VC to a wealthy merchant, Boyd Anderson, so that he could look out over the Moray Firth; attached to Anderson’s fuse that subsequently became the Skerry Brae Hotel, Aberdeenshire, it was finally ‘rescued’ by purchase in 2001. Grants were received from the PRISM Fund and the Society of Friends for its purchase and conservation, which is now complete.*
The ‘Independent’ Newespaper
A panel of Museum experts and enthusiasts were asked by the Independent newspaper to nominate their top 50 small museums in the country. We were on the list! Although small(ish) there is much to see, and three hours should be allowed for a visit.*
This
joint exhibition, mounted to celebrate the Centenary of the RN Submarine
Service in the heart of London, was originally intended to operate from April
2001 for six months. It has proved to be so popular that it has been extended
by mutual consent until April 2003. A young correspondent for the Children’s
Express commenting on a day at the IWM, wrote One of the highlights was the Submarine Exhibition, which cleverly
showed what it was like living underwater in a confined, metal container -very claustrophobic. This exhibition
demonstrates two major points; the first is the interest of the young in the
submarine story; the second is what can be achieved when two Museums work
together and share their artefacts and experience.*
The
Centenary Year produced a pleasing plethora of books on the history of the
RN Submarine Service, with the Museum contributing in one way or another to
the majority of them. More recent offerings, which all drew heavily on the
Archive and photographic collection, have been The
Forgotten Flotilla - The diary
of Vice Admiral Leslie Ashmore during the Submarine Baltic Campaign in WWI
edited by Brian Head, the leader of the Museum’s Archive Working Party;
Submarines and Deep Sea Vehicles by Jeff
Tall; and Honoured by Strangers -
The life of Captain Francis Cromie CB DSO RN
by Roy Bainton.*
Spies,
Saboteurs and Scouts featuring
the medals of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Wilson DSO* Royal Artillery, the most
landed saboteur from submarines during WWII.*
The
sword of Sub Lieutenant (later Captain) GC Steele VC, one of two VCs won by
submariners when serving away from their parent branch. The VC was awarded for
outstanding gallantry during a CMB on the Bolshevik forces in Kronstadt in
1919.*
The
periscope from HMS L14.*
(*posted
10 August 2002)