Volunteering at The Royal Highland Fusiliers Museum

 
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Volunteering at The Royal Highland Fusiliers Museum

As mentioned in my May post since June last year I’ve been volunteering at the The Royal Highland Fusiliers Museum (RHF). However, I've recently left the RHF museum to move down to England so I thought I'd memorialise my time there in one last blog post. 

The Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed Regimental Headquarters and Museum is located near Charing Cross on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow and it’s a hidden gem stuffed to the gunnels with all sorts of historic military paraphernalia. The Royal Highland Fusiliers were formed in 1959 by the amalgamation of two of the British Army’s most distinguished Regiments The Royal Scots Fusiliers and The Highland Light Infantry. 

Me holding a medal

I found the RHF Museum shortly after graduating from my Museum Studies course and I’ve spent the last year volunteering there in various capacities. Volunteering at the museum has been a really great way of building my CV and getting some much needed ‘hands on’ curatorial and archival experience that’s much needed -and expected- these days before even hoping to find paid work within the cultural heritage sector. Tasks at the RHF museum have included everything from organising display cases, conducting archival research and handling enquiries from veteran’s families seeking information on relatives who once served with the Regiment. This placement has also involved assisting in the digitisation of WW1 related documents and artefacts and managing the museum’s dreaded electronic database system (Modes).

For this month's post I thought I’d share some of the interesting artefacts kept in the collection that have really caught my eye over the last year. Up for discussion are the WWI gas masks and a 'Dead Mans Penny'/Memorial Scroll donated to the museum by the family of RSF Pte Walter Rumph.

The P helmet and the PH helmet

Probably the most distinctive items currently on display are the two nightmarish First World War gas masks kept in the RHF museum's Gallery Five. The masks on display are the P helmet and PH helmet and are worth seeking out (see picture's below).

Machine Gunners in gas masks during the Battle of the Somme in France, July, 1916.

Gas masks used in World War One were made as a result of poison gas attacks that took the Allies in the trenches on the Western Front by surprise. Early gas masks were crude since no-one had thought that poison gas would ever be used in warfare as the mere thought seemed too shocking. The P helmet, PH helmet were early types of gas masks issued by the British Army during the War to protect troops against chlorine, phosgene and tear gases. Rather than having a separate filter for removing the toxic chemicals they consisted of a gas-permeable hood worn over the head which was treated with chemicals.  The P (or Phenate) Helmet, officially called the Tube Helmet, appeared in July 1915, replacing the simpler Hypo Helmet.

The "P" helmet introduced in 1915

The Phenate or "P" helmet was made of two layers of flannelette (Cotton) with an added mouth piece. The inner layer of flannelette is usually, not always, striped pajama flannelette. "P" stands for Phenate. These stayed in service until Jan 1916 as Primary defense. It featured two mica eyepieces instead of the single visor of its predecessor, and added an exhaust valve fed from a metal tube which the wearer held in his mouth. It had flannel layers of cloth-dipped in sodium phenolate and glycerin and protected against chlorine and phosgene, but not against tear gas. Around 9 million were made.

The "PH" helmet introduced in 1915

Phenate-Hexamine or "PH" helmet is almost identical to the P helmet. The real difference was in the dipping solution. PH Helmets are usually stamped PH with a number (Lot number). The PH Helmet introduced in October 1915, with added hexamethylene tetramine, greatly improved protection against phosgene and added protection against hydrocyanic acid. Around 14 million were made and it remained in service until the end of the war by which time it was relegated to second line use.

'Dead Man's Penny' and Memorial Scroll donated to the museum by the family of RSF Pte Walter Rumph

Also on display in the same gallery is a selection of Memorial Plaques and Scrolls. For this post I've specifically focused on a memorial Plaque that was given to the next of kin to Private Walter Rumph and subsequently been donated to the RHF museum.

These Memorial Plaques were made of bronze and often referred to as ‘Dead Man’s Penny’s’ due to their similarity in appearance to the somewhat smaller penny coin. The Memorial Plaques where issued after the First World War to the next-of-kin of all British and Empire service personnel who were killed as a result of the war. 

Dead Man’s Penny commemorating the death of RSF Private Walter Rumph

It was decided that the design of the plaque, about 5 inches (120 mm) in diameter and cast in bronze, was to be picked from submissions made in a public competition. Over 800 designs were submitted and the competition was won by the sculptor and medallist Edward Carter Preston with his design called Pyramus, receiving a first place prize of £250.  This token includes an image of Britannia holding a trident and standing with a lion. The designer's initials, E.CR.P. appear above the front paw. In her left outstretched hand Britannia holds an oak wreath above the rectangular tablet bearing the deceased's name cast in raised letters. The name does not include the rank since there was to be no distinction between sacrifices made by different individuals. Two dolphins swim around Britannia, symbolising Britain's sea power, and at the bottom a second lion is tearing apart the German eagle. The reverse is blank, making it a plaquette rather than a table medal. Around the picture the legend reads (in capitals) "He died for freedom and honour", or for the six hundred plaques issued to commemorate women, "She died for freedom and honour".
 

The plaques were issued in a pack with a commemorative scroll from King George V. The scroll was printed on high quality paper, size 11 x 7 inches (27cm x 17cm).

The committee found the choice of words very difficult and asked for advice from numerous well-known writers. Among those approached for suggestions was Rudyard Kipling, whose only son John was missing in action, believed killed, at the Battle of Loos in late September 1915. However, even with this help the committee couldn't make a decision on the words. Dr Montague Rhodes James, Provost of King's College Cambridge, was then asked if he would write a draft for the wording. 

The accepted wording agreed by the committee was:

 

“He whom this scroll commemorates
was numbered among those who,
at the call of King and Country, left all that was dear to them
endured hardnedss, faced danger, and finally passed out of the sight of men by the path of duty
and self sacrifice, giving up their own lives that others might live in freedom.

Let those who come after see to it
that his name be not forgotten.”

The text was to be printed in calligraphic script beneath the Royal Crest followed by the name of the commemorated serviceman giving his rank, name and regiment individually written in calligraphic sc.

Scroll for RSF Private Walter Rumph

During my time at the RHF Museum I helped cataloging many of these plaques and scrolls. I became quite attached to these items that belonged to Pte Walter Rumph’s family as I was put in charge of listing and cataloging them when they where recently handed into the museum. Among the collection of items handed in with Pte Rumph’s death penny and scroll was a selection of embroidered postcards from the front, a series of photographs and many other personal belongings and trinkets.

Pte Walter Rumph with his wife Helen and daughter Gracie

 Tragically, Walter died on October 31st, 1918 just a week before the war ended, leaving a widow and a small daughter, Gracie.

Postcard reads: 'With compliments and kind rememberance of 28 sept 1913, 5 years of the best with love Dear from your loving husband Walter xxxx'

The postcard above was sent to his wife on their five year wedding anniversary. Just over a month later Walter Rumph was killed on the Western front on October 31st 1918 a week before the war ended.

Here's a segment about The Royal Highland Fusiliers Museum filmed recently by STVGlasgow for the Riverside Show -look closely enough and you can see me 30 seconds in standing in the background of the main gallery.

 

Nemo Me Impune Lacessit 

(No One Assails Me With Impunity)

Christy

There and Back Again: Part III

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There and Back Again: Part III

My trip to:

Manchester/London/Florianopolis/Rio de Janeiro

In my last post I wrote about the exhibitions I visited whilst in Manchester for this entry I’m going to talk about my cultural sightseeing in Brazil between most of December and early January. Up for discussion will be the Museu Castro Maya.

Whist in Rio I visited the Museu de Arte do Rio (Rio Museum of Art) and Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, but my favorite cultural highlights by far was the Museu Castro Maya or the Castro Maya Museum (in English). Raymundo Ottoni de Castro Maya (1894-1968), or Castro Maya for short, was a buisness man and art collector  who was born in Paris and returned there several times, which made him a very familiar with European culture, and particularly the French.

Museum Plaque

It was his activity as a collector supporting national artistic values ​​and the pursuit of public access to it's collections that made ​​him a great patron committed to the city of Rio in which he lived. He helped create of the Company of the Hundred Bibliophiles of Brazil, in 1943, filling a cultural gap by editing 23 books, and Castro founded the Society for Friends of Printmaking in 1952, helped to spread the taste for engraving as artistic expression. It is also important to highlight that Castro had a pivotal role in the founding of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro in 1948, of which Castro was the first president.

The Castro Maya Museums - Museum of Sky Ranch in Santa Teresa, and Dam Museum, the Alto da Boa Vista - today constitute the set of museums belonging to the Brazilian Institute of Museums, Ministry of Culture. Based in Santa Teresa a neighborhood in the city of Rio de Janeiro located on top of the Santa Teresa hill. The area is famous for its winding, narrow streets a favorite spot for artists and tourists. The neighborhood originated around the Santa Teresa Convent, built in the 1750's on the Desterro hill. At the end of the 19th and early 20th century it was an upper class borough, as testified by its magnificent mansions, many of which are still standing. Santa Teresa has since ceased to be an upper-class neighborhood, but it has been recently revived as an artistic hotspot and is now home to several artists, art studios and galleries. Castro Maya, who lived in the neighborhood in his Chácara do Céu mansion which has now been turned into the Castro Maya Museum and its exhibits include works by Matisse, Jean Metzinger, Eliseu Visconti, Di Cavalcanti, and Candido Portinari it also includes some pretty smart period features.

Museum interior

Notice the painting Nature morte by Louis Casimir Marcoussis in the Museum Hallway

I truly loved the Castro Maya Museum not only does it boast a fantastic view from the hills looking over the city, but the yellow stone covering the facades and the exquisite art deco styled finishing’s make it worth checking out alone. Also the gardens that were designed by Roberto Burle Marx are beautiful and offer a very scenic view of downtown Rio.

 

Gardens were designed by Roberto Burle Marx

The view of downtown Rio

The Museum has a good selection of classical European art dating from the 1800's (Impressionists/expressionists ect) and Brazilian abstract art. The abstract art really caught my attention partly because Modernist Brazilian art was not something I was familiar with and there seemed to be some fascinating parallels with late Cubism/early Abstract Expressionism from America and Europe.

In Brazil abstract art as a movement came late in comparison to Europe. Brazil had a vigorous art scene, but it was one marked more by sturdy academic tradition. Even modern figurative art had to fight an arduous battle to impose itself upon the public during the 1920’s far behind what was going on in Europe and even the rest of South America. The Sao Paulo Biennial founded in 1951 (the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennale) is commonly accepted as the landmark event that signaling the arrival abstract trends in Brazilian art. As a result of these changes on the national art scene the Castro Maya Museum from the 1950’s onwards started to expand its collection to the include more Abstract art. The epicenter of the Castro Maya collection is focused the years between the 1957 (IV) and 1959 (V) Biennials. As a result most of the works held by the Castro Maya Museum are composed during the second half of the 1950’s and the early 1960’s.

Untitled (1959) by Georges Mathieu

Untitled (1959) by Jean Paul Riopelle

Its noticeable that a lot of this work in the collection features modernist work and ideas that lean towards nationalist themes such as slums and are more influenced by Geometric Abstraction/Cubism. These works probably functioned as a kind of safe-conduct for acceptance, given how behind the rest of the Modernist world Brazil was even with a man like Castro Maya needed work that still had (no matter how vague) a connection to the figurative. Many of these Geometric/Cubist works Castro Maya could relate to more immediately because there modern features were still linked to reality and where a more obvious continuation of those more accepted earlier modernist European trends.

 

Untitled (1960) by Jean Guillaume

Untitled (1960) by Ivan Serpa

The abstract acquisitions at the end of the 1950’s are linked to the building of his home in the neighborhood of Santa Teresa. With its inauguration in 1958 the Chacara do Ceu was conceived as a white cube that would house the modern part of Maya’s Collection which was being vastly expanded at the time. Also while I was visiting the Museum had a show of contemporary art by Land Art and Installation artist Claudia Bakker showing the museum still has a role to play in the modern art world.

So yes, the Castro Maya Museum, very good!

Tom McKendrick: SOLDIERS'

Exhibition Update!  This weekend I had the pleasure of being introduced to Tom McKendrick at the opening of his new exhibition entitled 'Soldiers', meeting him brought back some old memories of of my early artistic days. Whilst studying HNC Portfolio Building at Dundee College I still remember very clearly a tutor showing me a video made by STV of Tom McKendrick's 'Submarine' exhibition.

The film's now on youtube (see below) although It's dated its very much worth a watch).

In recent months I've been working at The Royal Highland Fusiliers regimental museum in Glasgow and it just so happens that Colonel Steele the Regimental Secretary for The Royal Highland Fusiliers has become part of Tom McKendrick's latest project, 'to turn incisive eye to the human condition in the context of conflict'. For his new project Tom has abandoned his usual abstraction for a more figurative style and is aiming over the next four years to paint 100 portraits of individuals who have served their country.

Colonel Steele's portrait is now on display with the rest of the soldiers Tom has painted thus far at House For an Art Lovers Studio Pavilion. The 'Soldiers' exhibition is well worth checking out!

(above)

Corp James Smith

 Here's some pictures from the opening event.

 

Soldiers!

Colonel Steele in front of his portrait!

Colonel Steele and Tom McKendrick with centurion and Dunkirk Veteran Jimmy Gillies.

The portrait of Colonel Steele up close.

I've added a link and transcript from Tom McKendrick website bellow:

Tom McKendrick Soldiers website

THE FIRST OF 100 PORTRAITS OF SOLDIERS

The relationship between artists and soldiers is a long one. Rembrandt , Dix, Palmer, Bone, Orpen, Nash, Goya, to name a few, painted soldiers or produced work on military themes. Tom in this project has abandoned his usual abstraction to turn incisive eye to the human condition in the context of conflict. Over the next few years he will paint 100 portraits of individuals who have served their country.  You can follow the development of this project as new images will be added when they become available. Images can be mouse clicked to enlarge or run as a slide show. All images are 40" x 44" approximately and are executed on Kraft paper in watercolour, pastel or acrylic or a mixture of all three.