Chatting Behind the Lines - Curator's tales and musings

  I arrived at work this morning and realised this was the last day that we would put up the Burma display today. It was a beautiful morning as we stood the display stands up and weighted them down ready for bank holiday visitors coming on site. Although the panels have only been up for 4 weeks, they have withstood some typical August weather. From gusty winds to heavy rain, we have had it all. There has been only three days when we had to lay the exhibition panels onto the grass as it was too windy and unsafe to keep them upright. Castle staff said that some visitors had come on site today specifically to see the exhibition, which is great. I even had a phonecall from Australia this morning from someone whose grandfather had been in the 4th Battalion out in Burma who asked if we could send her some photographs as she would be unable to see the display. Seemed a pretty good excuse! Using our photographs and archive material to put this display together has been great fun. Ensuring that

  My dad had a copy of the 'When in doubt, brew up' poster which he kept by his computer. It always made me smile. Of course, tea (and coffee, for me) plays a large part in our working day. The kettle is usually boiling in the staff kitchen ready for the next refreshment break. As a hospitable Museum team, our guests are often offered a drink when they come for a meeting. Some ask for 'Nato standard' a military term for tea with milk and two sugars. Tea is certainly an established drink within the Armed Forces. This is shown in photographs within our collections showing soldiers making tea, whether in Gallipoli in 1915 or Burma in 1944.  Interestingly, NAAFI (Navy, Army, Air Force Institute) has often been associated with tea. Infact, a few years ago Spar started selling NAAFI teabags to raise money for Help for Heroes. NAAFI canteens could be found anywhere around the world serving a little bit of home to service personnel abroad. Tea was often part of that comfort. I