Royal Signals Museum - Displays

 

Display Overview

NEW FOR 2008 - WOMEN AT WAR

Heritage Lottery Fund support Women at War project.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded a grant of £50,000 to the Royal Signals Museum “Women at War” project, it was announced today.

The aims of the project are neatly summarised by former SOE agent Gervase Cowell's comment to Her Majesty The Queen, in 1999, when he was appointed MBE and she asked him what he was doing now:

" I help the old to remember and the young to understand. "

The story of Landgirls and women factory workers during the war is well known but little has been done to depict the role of women within the military.With the support of the HLF, the Women at War exhibition aims to engage and enthuse people of all ages, but particularly children in education, in our national heritage by telling the story of women who joined the services and had an active, military role. The award of £50,000 will allow the Museum to create a dynamic multi-media exhibition illustrating this largely untold story of Britain’s unsung heroines.

With particular concentration on the The FANYs, SOE and “Y” Service Women at War will illustrate the essential “front line” role of women during the war and in civil emergencies during peacetime.

The FANY was formed in 1907 with the purpose of assisting the Military and Civil authorities in times of Emergency. During the First World War, they had a wide ranging role and by the Armistice had been awarded many decorations, including 27 Croix de Guerre. The SOE and “Y” Service had similarly impressive roles.This exhibition and its outreach material will create new insights into the nation’s heritage and the sometimes hidden but formative role of women within our society.Furthermore it will open the eyes of school children to the bravery, sacrifice and achievements of these women who protected our community and our freedom.

PERMANENT MUSEUM DISPLAYS

The Royal Signals Museum exists to preserve the history and traditions of our predecessors in the field of military communications. The following is an outline of the topics that are displayed within the Museum and are enhanced by the vivid use of graphic panels, display cases, audio-visual aids and tableaux. They are displayed in chronological order.

A brochure is available from the Museum Shop and it outlines the contents of the Museum and is illustrated with over 60 photographs.

To view the pages below CLICK on the relevant heading.

1. Introduction
The importance of communications in a military context.
Early types of military signalling.
2. The Crimean War
The invention of the electric telegraph and its first use in war.
3. Royal Engineer Signals from 1870-1900
The formation of C Telegraph Troop.
Colonial Wars 1879-1899.
4. The Boer War
The growing use of the telegraph for tactical purposes.
The first major use of the telephone in war.
The first attempt to use wireless in war.
5. The First World War
The role of the Royal Engineer Signal Service.
The development of the military telephone and wireless.
The continued importance of the telegraph in military signalling.
The use of visual signalling in warfare.
The use of animals in war.
6. The Inter-War Years
The formation of the Royal Corps of Signals.
The Corps in India.
7. The Second World War
Royal Signals with the British Expeditionary Force.
The Western Desert Campaign.
The war in the Far East.
The fighting in NW Europe and the importance of the No10 Set.
Royal Signals in Airborne Units and other Special Forces.
Encryption, interception and spy radio.
8. Post Second World War Conflicts
Introduction and Royal Signals in British Army of the Rhine
Royal Signals in Palestine Suez and Malaya
Royal Signals in Korea and Cyprus.
Royal Signals in Northern Ireland.
Royal Signals in The Falklands War.
The Gulf War.
Royal Signals in the UN and NATO Peace-Keeping Forces.
Royal Signals in the SAS(click to view image - 43KB).
9. Medal Gallery.
10. Royal Signals Sporting and Artistic Achievements Gallery
11. Royal Signals Colonel in Chief and Colonel Commandant Displays
12. Royal Signals Uniform Display
13. Middlesex Yeomanry Display

( The Museum contains a small gallery where temporary exhibitions can be mounted from material held in the Museum's reserve collections, from touring exhibitions, or from items on loan from other museums, industrial concerns or private individuals)



 
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