Hi
I am a volunteer at the Regimental museum and have assisted them in digitalizing their records with other volunteers for a number of years. My particular area of interest is the Royal Berkshire Regiment and the photographic identification side of the research.
As the museum title suggests the museum is responsible for the Royal Berkshire (49th/66th) and Wiltshire Regiments (62nd/99th). Like all infantry regiments they have over the years gone through a number of mergers and the Regimental museum has changed its name accordingly. The two Regiments merged in 1959 with museum based at Reading and Devizes respectively. In the 1980s they were grouped in a building called the Wardrobe in Salisbury, Wiltshire and called The Museum of the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire), then in 1994 after a merger with the Gloucestershire Regiment it took the tile of The Museum of the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment. Then finally (hopefully) they became part of THE RIFLES and the museum took the title as shown above.
The museum has tried to produce a decent website with the archive/photographic collection at the core. We have a fair number of entries that relate to the Boer War. (Mainly medals) and I would like to draw the attention of fellow forum members to the site. The website address is
www.thewardrobe.org.uk
once there click into RESEARCH/COLLECTION and in Key words place the words BOER and you will get over 400 hits. If you in the advanced search under UNIT/WILTS/2nd Battalion (time from 1899 - 1902) you will get 271 hits, with a similar hit rate for the Royal Berks Regt. Many of the images that are now shown came from albums that until recently had not been opened for research for about 100 years.
I know the site will only be of main interest to Berks and Wilts Regimental followers but I think it gives a good idea of what is behind the scenes at small Regimental Museums such as ours. All the work to get it to this state has been carried out by volunteers as the museum in financial terms gets no support from the MOD and has to stand on its own two feet. Any errors on the site can be adjusted quickly.
[The museum is housed in a building next to Salisbury Cathedral call The Wardrobe, so named because of its association with the Cathedral]
Cheers
Springer
