New Commando Exhibition in West Highland Museum Fort William

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 02/04/2012 18:48:00

The plans to have an exhibition established in the West Highland Museum of Fort William for 'the Commandos' are finally making good progress. A meeting over Remembrance weekend between the CVA National Secretary and the trustees and curator of the museum identified that a large room has now been allocated to the exhibition and the aspiration is to have this sufficiently prepared for a possible opening in March/April of 2012.

There are a number of avenues for the provision of items to furnish the exhibition however the National Secretary has issued a plea to all CVA members and all those within the Commando community who may have suitable items that they would be willing to donate or loan, to contact him immediately.

The West Highland Museum has a well established system of governance and has all of the environmental and infrastructure requirements in place, including climate control and the necessary security and insurance requirements. See their website: http://www.westhighlandmuseum.org.uk/

The CVA committee feel that this offer is a fantastic opportunity to establish, over a period of time, an official and appropriate exhibition that will take forward the history of the Commandos and will be a place that we can be proud to visit each year. It will develop over a period of time and will also include periodic additions such as SOE and other related exhibitions.

Please note that it is not yet planned to move items from the Commando Exhibition at the Spean Bridge Hotel, and each will sign-post the other.

Anyone interested in donating or loaning items for the new exhibition should contact the undersigned by pm as soon as possible.

Further details to follow as plans progress.

Regards

Geoff

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 25/07/2012 21:37:08

The grand opening of the Commando Exhibition in the West Highland Museum is planned to coincide with Remembrance weekend in November.

If anyone has any items, however large or small, please let me know. I have FS knives and uniforms etc, of which more would be great, however the little things also would be appreciated.

See the photo below: If you have any small items that would add value to the exhibition then please consider either donating or loaning them to us.

The exhibition is so important in taking forward the history of the Commandos.

Kind regards

Geoff

Hello Geoff

I still have the suitcase full of stuff here............I have not made it up to FW yet but I am intending to pop up after the Olympics which I am attending (lucky me!!).
I also have a job for Janet Bishop to do up there.........I am looking forward to seeing the place in the summer.

Will keep you informed.

Regards

John M

Geoff
Do you know if there is any inventory of exhibits anywhere please? It is a while since I saw the museum (November 2002 - Commando Association reunion up there) but I enjoyed it a great deal. Some fascinating items to be sure!
Regards
Mike

PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN!!!

The grand opening of the new Commando Exhibition in the West Highland Museum is planned to coincide with Remembrance weekend in November.

If anyone has any items, however large or small, please let me know. Please see attached photos of what I have put together so far. I also have more replica weapons (Lee Enfield, Webley, Colt '45) and the FS knives will be mounted with the history of FS and the Commandos added.

Regards

One original All in Fighting hardback book bid and won on ebay. Will be given on a long term loan to the museum from the members of The Butcher & Bolt private bar.

Greg
That's great it will be a good addition.

We need as many people to get behind this as possible. Hopefuly it will develope into a fantastic and permanant exibition.....and beings that it is in FW it's in just the right place.

I know i will be donating more in the future .......

regards

John M

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 19/08/2012 22:08:09

Absolutely John. Geoff can you put up a wish list and maybe folks can try and see what they have, or could get?

What will be the layout? How would you like to show the items? Ect?

My posting of 5/8/12 assumed additional items were required for the Commando Museum Spean Bridge - please excuse me if I was incorrect. It would be very interesting to view an inventory of exhibits there.

Hello Geoff,

Julia Jacobs here, George Deadman 5/1 Commando was my Father, he passed away in 2010 when I was a member of the Commando Veterans association. Can you please email me urgently, the stone that was meant to be laid at the Commando memorial at Alrewas was NOT laid and I have arranged a visit there for the first time in August to see the stone, I need to know what can be done. I am disabled and this is a trip arranged by vicar friend as I want to see Daddys name at the Memorial at the NMA, please phone me on 01460 258896 or email [email protected].

thankyou I desperately need to get this sorted asap
kind regards
Julia

Hi Julia

I have passed your message to the current National Secretary Fred Davies. There certainly used to be a paver for your Father back in 2011 as we have a photo of it. There was some work done on the area more recently so it may not be in the same position as before. Anyhow Fred's email is [email protected]

http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/Commando+War+Graves+Memorials+and+Plaques/National+Arboretum/Army/Memorial+Pavers/9.jpg.html

Pete

Dear Pete,

thankyou, I have been in bits today, I cant thank you enough that I can know the Paver was done and has been there all this time, and thankyou for the photo, I will call the NMA tomorrow and ask them to have another look (they told me there was no Paver for George Deadman), I cannot tell you what a relief this is,
and now I can go and see it, I feel sure even if work done, certainly no pavers will have been removed.

thankyou again so very much,

Julia Jacobs

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 27/07/2017 21:49:31

Hi Julia,

I took the original photo of your father's paver, that Pete included in his post, back in 2011. Since then as Pete stated there has been work done and the pavers were rearranged.
I re-took photos of all the pavers again in 2013 and here is your father's...
Since then there has been no major work carried out but a few more pavers have been added. So you can reassured that your father's paver should still be at the CVA's Army Commando Memorial.

Nick

Dear Nick,

thankyou SO much for this, the NMA mis heard my Fathers name on the telephone and were looking for STEADMAN instead of DEADMAN, they have now sent a Volunteer to look for my Fathers Paver and they have found it, yes its moved from its original place but it is there and has been since 2011 for which my heart is truly grateful that he is with his Brothers in arms, his name is there along with Vic, dear Vic Ralph who was his dear friend, and whom I had the honour to reunite him with on my Fathers 80th Birthday when Vic walked in with a replacement green beret I had got for my Father, and my Father cried to see him.

Thankyou so much, I cannot wait to get up to the Memorial, I love my Father so much.

Julia

Hi Julia,

I'm so pleased that we were able to put your mind at rest...
Do you have any photos of your father which we could upload to the CVA Website Gallery?

Many thanks

Nick