The Artist in residence will work with our First World War archive to bring to life some of the interesting stories and characters which exist in the original letters, diaries and photographs kept by Highland soldiers during the conflict.
‘The Highlanders’ Museum is delighted to announce the appointment of Robyn Woolston as Artist in Residence for the first 6 months of 2017. Thanks to a grant from Museums Galleries Scotland, we have been able to appoint our first Artist in Residence who will be working with our World War One collection to generate a creative response, engage local primary school children and interact with visitors to the Museum. The residency will be followed by an exhibition of Robyn’s work alongside pieces generated from the schools workshops.’
Gill Bird - The Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection)
The upcoming exhibition of works from my residency at The Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection) at Fort George, Scotland, has been extended into 2018.
It will now run from October 2017 - March 2018
Watch this space for further updates or follow the project blog for research posts as the story develops:
Photo credit: My research photographs show a newspaper from the archive at Fort George. ‘Prisoners of War’ by Jean Pierre Laurens is a testimony on the German occupation during the 1st World War.
It can be found within the Seaforths documentation (No’s 80 - 133 + 84 - 101)
Hand written (carbon copied) front pages show the nuance and differentiation of potentially different authors. Inside everything is typed.
51st Highland Division. The Capture of Greenland Hill - North of the Scarpe. 18th - 30th August 1918. The Second Battle of the Marne - Valley of the Ardre. 20th - 31st July 1918.
Sometimes sold in commercially available kits and sometimes made out of scrounged thread, feed sacks and woollen cloth taken from uniforms.
The tradition began in the 19th Century with Queen Victoria who, as an amateur practitioner of textile arts, thought soldiers may find quilting or needlepoint a welcome distraction during convalescence or times of loneliness. The tradition carried on throughout WW1 and the archive at the fort contains some fascinating examples of such pieces.
Materials included paper decoupage, glass beads, metal pins and plastic alongside sequins and braids.
Inscription:
‘Think of Me When the golden sun is sinking, and your mind from care set free, when of others you are thinking, will you sometimes Think of Me’
The activity was mostly undertaken by men and the pincushions were stuffed with a variety of materials including sawdust.
…..this card was included with the previous posted photographs (& with a batch of 67 other images & documents) in the archive at the Fort.
It reads:
FRONT
'God bless my DEAR DADDY at the WAR and keep him safe’
(Original printed notation)
'With little Duncan’s love’
(Handwritten)
REVERSE
'Take this for your Mascot’
(Handwritten)
The owner of these items was Sgt David J McRae, originally a tailor who spent time living in South Africa, he went to France on 1st May 1915. Discharged on 16th February 1919.
The Artist in residence will work with our First World War archive to bring to life some of the interesting stories and characters which exist in the original letters, diaries and photographs kept by Highland soldiers during the conflict.
‘The Highlanders’ Museum is delighted to announce the appointment of Robyn Woolston as Artist in Residence for the first 6 months of 2017. Thanks to a grant from Museums Galleries Scotland, we have been able to appoint our first Artist in Residence who will be working with our World War One collection to generate a creative response, engage local primary school children and interact with visitors to the Museum. The residency will be followed by an exhibition of Robyn’s work alongside pieces generated from the schools workshops.’
Gill Bird - The Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection)
‘Summer Has Been Turned To Winter By The Guns’ (2017)
at
The Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection)
8th October 2017 – 18th March 2018
“It has been a real experience for staff, volunteers, visitors and local schoolchildren to work with our Artist in Residence on this project – seeing our World War One archive through fresh and creative eyes. Robyn Woolston’s exhibition is stunning, thought-provoking and presents a personal response to ‘The Great War’ from the artist and the children and adults who contributed to the project.”
Fort George is a ‘registered Ancient Monument’ and for over 235 years has been a military garrison and training depot for a Regular Infantry Battalion of the British Army. It is currently home to the 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland.
Set in what was formerly the Lieutenant Governor’s house, the Highlanders’ Museum was founded over 60 years ago. The museum houses more than 5,000 gallantry awards and campaign medals won by the fighting men of the regiment as well as silver and personal artefacts. It also contains a set of Colours carried at the Battle of Waterloo and King Edward VIII’s regimental uniform.
Opening Times: 10.00am - 3.15pm / closed at weekends Dec & Jan
Admission to the Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection) is FREE but you must pay an admission charge to visit Fort George. Adult - £9.00 Concession - £7.20 Child aged 5–15 - £5.40 Under 5 - FREE
I’m now at a point in my Museums Galleries Scotland funded Artist Residency at the Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection) where I’m moving from research into making. It’s a stage which requires me to spend less time ‘on location’ & more time in the studio.
After collating 1408 separate files comprised of photographs from the archive, notes sent both to-and-from the front line, official documents from Buckingham Palace, official portraits, and domestic snaps etc it is a time to focus upon narratives that will saturate and direct my final exhibition.
During the last 6 months I’ve been most touched by:
- ‘traces’ left by the human hand, a note scribbled in the corner of a printed army document or the inside of a cigarette wrapper. - hand-sewn greetings cards and notes - salvaged materials used within sweetheart pin-cushions (old uniforms, sack-cloth etc) - harrowing personal accounts of life in the trenches: ‘Our wounded were streaming back, some ghastly sights; holding on arms, legs, broken and smashed’&‘All that will be left is a nation of legless, and armless, blind and helpless except those that are making money’(1917)
Alongside extracts from newspapers such as the Shipley Express and Times from 1st June 1917 describing Arras:
‘…over wires, over shell holes, past mined patches and death traps…faced a torrent of fire aimed at us’
And then there are the thoughts of historians such as E.J. Hobsbawn raising pertinent questions such as: how did ‘the era of peace, of confident bourgeois civilisation, growing wealth and western empires within itself the embryo of the era of war, revolution and crisis put an end to it?’
In parallel I’m now diving deep into materials and techniques. Exploring hand-sewn and domestic processes alongside industrial fabrication techniques. I’m locating harvested cloth (from Highland charity shops and the collection itself) and found objects.
Accompanying paperwork (linked to previous photographs) for Capt Lennox Robert Murray Napier served 2nd Camerons 1911-15
He served with the 2nd Battalion in India and on the outbreak of World War 1 he remained there in charge of married families, until rejoining the Battalion, then near Dickebusch, 17th Feb 1915. After being wounded at the battle of Frezenberg Ridge, 8th May 1915, he was posted to the 1st Battalion and commanded ‘C’ Company during the trench fighting in the Bethune sector, and at the battle of Bazentin Ridge when he was mortally wounded while leading the assault, and fell into the hands of the Germans.
Died as a Prisoner of War on the 28th July 1916 in a German Field Hospital, of wounds received in action 23rd July 1916. Originally reported missing.
I’m midway through the research stage of my residency at Fort George, a large 18th-century fortress near Ardersier, to the north-east of Inverness, Scotland. Working out of the Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection), the museum covers three floors of Fort George’s former Lieutenant Governors’ House.
Project Aims:
To respond creatively to the World War 1 displays and archives at The Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection).
To engage with local children and communities
To produce a finished artwork/exhibition to be exhibited at The Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection) for 6 months (October 2017 - March 2018)
So far I’ve been working here for three months and completed 5 primary school workshops which have resulted in a wall-based battlefield mural, a series of imaginary medals, a collection of Trench Poetry and a series of letters home to loved ones.
‘We are absolutely delighted to welcome artist Robyn Woolston to The Highlanders’ Museum as our Artist in Residence and are excited about the work she has already been doing. The project will help bring our First World War archive to life featuring some of the interesting stories and characters which exist in the original letters, diaries and photographs kept by Highland soldiers during the conflict.’
Gill Bird / Education and Outreach Officer
From personal, hand-drawn, love letters to military orders, each visit provides a proliferation of compelling avenues for investigation.
It’s a time of immersion and editing, of reflection and navigation through a collection that houses thousands of objects, photographs, paintings, uniforms and reference texts.
‘God bless my DEAR DADDY at the WAR and keep him safe. With little Duncan’s love.’ / SGT DAVID J MCRAE 240180
‘Take this for your mascot’ / SGT DAVID J MCRAE 240180
It’s also a time of contemplation in terms of the ‘axis’ that embodies ‘where’ creative response meets military rigour. Of considering how suitability and juxtaposition may highlight-and-handle harrowing conflict-based narratives. I’m conceiving of plans which will both comment and illuminate with the intention of partially pushing aside many of the traditional conventions, or norms, in terms of museum display. Questions arise as to ways in which one can effectively honour tradition whilst reigniting/reframing perceptions.
S U M M E R H A S B E E N
T U R N E D T O
W I N T E R B Y T H E
G U N S
(A label found below a photograph housed deep within a section of the photographic archive not open to the general public)
Image 1: Beaumont Hamel - Battle of the Somme. This image was provided by Dave Chapman, Research and Volunteer Coordinator at the museum in response to our battlefield mural below it. He took this photograph on a battlefield tour and went on the tell me that the tree was used by both sides as a reference point for target indications during WW1.
Image 2: Battlefield mural created by Ardesier Primary School children as part of my Artist Residency
In our final classroom-based workshop this week we looked at Propaganda Posters and Trench Poetry.
We took inspiration from the collection at Fort George including a poem written by 8384 Private W Hendry of the 2nd Royal Scots: ‘In the Trenches, somewhere in France’
….next week we’ll take a trip to the fort itself and continue our research in-situ.
Fort George is a large 18th-century fortress to the north-east of Inverness. The current fortress has never been attacked and has remained in continuous use as a garrison.
The fortification is based on a star design that remains virtually unaltered.
The Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection) covers three floors of Fort George’s former Lieutenant Governors’ House.
I’ve been exploring WW1 medals, honours and awards with a group of local primary school children. We’ve taken inspiration from medals found within the collection at the Highlanders Museum, Inverness.
The workshop also considered shape, design, context & colour when creating our imaginary awards.
Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection) / The Princess Mary 1914 Christmas Gift
The design depicts the head of Princess Mary in the centre, a laurel wreath surrounds her and she is flanked by the ‘M’ monogram. A decorative cartouche contains the words “Imperium Britannicum” at the top with a sword, bayonet and scabbard (for the Army) either side. On the lower edge, another cartouche contains the words “Christmas 1914”, which is flanked by the bows of two Dreadnnoughts (for the Royal Navy) forging through deep seas.
The corners display the names of the Allies: Belgium, Japan, Montenegro and Servia; France and Russia at the edges, each superimposed on their furled flags or standards.
The Princess Mary’s Christmas Gift Fund was launched on October 14th 1914, with subsequent advertisements placed in the national press inviting monetary contributions to a “Sailors and Soldiers Christmas Fund”. Created by the 17 year old Princess Mary, daughter of King George V and Queen Mary, its purpose was to provide everyone on Active Service on Christmas Day with a “gift from the nation”.
Her public letter released by Buckingham Palace read:
“I have delayed making known a wish that has long been in my heart for fear of encroaching on other funds, the claims of which have been more urgent. I want you now to help me to send a Christmas present from the whole nation to every sailor afloat and every soldier at the Front. On Christmas Eve when, like the shepherds of old, they keep their watch, doubtless their thoughts will turn to home…I am sure that we should all be the happier to feel that we had helped to send our little token of love and sympathy…something that would be useful and of permanent value and the making of which may be the means of employment in trades adversely affected by the war”.
Every box contained a Christmas card and a picture of the Princess. Huge demands were made upon the already stretched postal service at the time yet more than 355,000 were delivered by the yuletide deadline. New Year deliveries contained a card that wished a ‘victorious new year’.
Parents of soldiers killed were entitled to boxes alongside nurses and the wounded. Prisoners of war at the time had theirs reserved until they were repatriated.
A shortage of brass also effected dispatch times and lead to many entitled personnel not receiving their gift until as late as the summer of 1916, and by January 1919 considerable numbers had still not been distributed.
When the fund finally closed almost £200,000 had been donated with more than two and a half million boxes with contents delivered by 1920.
There are a number of gift boxes held within the archive at the museum.
‘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 hardness, faced danger, and finally passed out of 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 upcoming exhibition of works from my residency at The Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection) at Fort George, Scotland, has been extended into 2018.
It will now run from October 2017 - March 2018
Watch this space for further updates or follow the project blog for research posts as the story develops:
Photo credit: My research photographs show a newspaper from the archive at Fort George. ‘Prisoners of War’ by Jean Pierre Laurens is a testimony on the German occupation during the 1st World War.
It can be found within the Seaforths documentation (No’s 80 - 133 + 84 - 101)
