Almost a hundred gathered to hear this fascinating presentation held in the main auditorium at Rheged, near Penrith on Friday 15^th July. Following an introduction by the Museum Chairman Colonel Mike Diss TD OBE, the first presentation was by Stuart Eastwood. Using many images from the Museum’s archives, he gave an historical summary of the service of The Border Regiment, on India’s NW Frontier (now Pakistan) and in Afghanistan during the 2^nd & 3^rd Afghan Wars 1878-80 & 1919 and the more recent service of TA soldiers from the King’s Own Royal Border Regiment in Afghanistan in 2002. Major Kevin Smith and Major Paul Tingey from the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment then gave the soldier’s view from the ground of more recent military operations in Afghanistan and the extremely tough tours in Helmand Province carried out by the Regiment’s 1^st & 2^nd Battalions supported by TA soldiers from the 4^th Battalion in 2009-2010. Their superb presentations included a wide range of images and graphic film footage of the Regiment’s soldiers in action. The final part of the evening was provided by Rory Stewart OBE MP for Penrith and the Border. He gave a modern and extremely entertaining overview of the country based on the walk he did across Afghanistan, the people he met and the places visited. The presentations touched on so many aspects which make up the complex history of this part of the world now and far into the past. The soldiers serving there now face many operational problems, many of which their predecessors would have recognized and sympathized with.

 The audience thoroughly enjoyed the evening and were able before and after the presentations to meet the speakers and view examples of old items of uniform and equipment used by the Regiment’s soldiers in the 1920’s and the contrasting kit worn and used by members of the Regiment today. The Museum is grateful to all those who helped to organise and who supported the event, in particular the speakers and members of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, Nick Hazlewood and Shani MacQueen from the Museum and the staff of the Rheged Discovery Centre. The evening raised a magnificent £1270 for the Museum Appeal.

Who Do You Think You Are?

 

– a lecture by WO1 (Adjutant) Geert Jonker of the Royal Dutch Army’s Logistic Corps on the work of the RNLA’s Recovery and Identification Unit at Thursby Parish Hall on Saturday 19th March.

 

A couple of years ago Stuart Eastwood, the Museum Curator invited Geert Jonker to give the Friends a talk on the work of the unit he is in charge of. Geert has become a great friend of the Museum through the links between his organisation, the Museum and the Regiment. The talk attracted an audience of 70 people who were enthralled by Geert Jonker’s lecture. He traced its origins from WW2 to the present day and outlined their role to recover the remains of Allied, Dutch and German servicemen and Dutch civilians, who died during WW2 and whose remains were not found. Geert described their pain-staking and fascinating work which combines archaeology, military history and forensic science to recover and identify remains often found during building, construction, landscape and forestry work. Amongst the many casualties found and identified have been five Border Regiment soldiers killed during the Battle of Arnhem and who now lie in marked graves in the Airborne Cemetery at Oosterbeek near Arnhem. The unit has also assisted in similar work in Belgium and France with remains from both World Wars. The unit’s close working relationship with the Regiment and the Museum dates from 1993 is a result of the efforts to identify the five Border Regiment soldiers, through military and other records and trace their next-of-kin. They work closely with the UK Ministry of Defence and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and many other agencies. The interest from the audience was reflected by the many questions after this superb lecture.

After the interval the audience enjoyed a pie and pea supper and a bar was available throughout the evening. Special thanks are due to Geert Jonker and our other great Dutch friend Martijn Cornelissen for coming over from the Netherlands, to Stuart and Peg Eastwood, who hosted them, Doreen Parsons for the excellent supper and to Paul Chandler and members of the Thursby Parish Hall Committee for their help. The Chairman, Jim Ormiston personally thanked Geert and has made him an Honorary Member of the Friends