The Excitement of Donations to our Collections


 

It is exciting to get phonecalls or emails at the Museum with offers of donations. It is great to know there is a huge range of material still out there. We have to work to an acquisitions and disposal policy which lays out what we can or cannot collect. Inevitably, we are unable to take every offer that is kindly made to the Museum. We have to be strict otherwise we would be submerged under new acquisitions. Items have to have a connection to the Regiment or the locality. Plus we have to restrict duplicate items due to storage space.

However, I was glad to receive a phonecall a few weeks ago from a gentleman who offered to donate a bible. He had been given it by a neighbour who had inherited it when she was younger. The bible is inscribed with the original owner's name 'Michael Bray' of the 55th Regiment. The 55th Regiment is one of our antecedent Regiments that formed the Border Regiment in 1881. Additionally it is dated 8th January 1854 when Bray was stationed in Gibraltar. The donor kindly sent the bible in the post with the little bit of research that he had undertaken.This little red leather bound bible was well-travelled and had now ended up at the Museum.

Donations like this help us develop our collections and give the Regimental history a more personal feel. We have limited information about Michael Bray but holding the bible makes you feel connected to the soldiers from over 100 years ago. What stories that little bible could tell if it could talk! Bray was wounded during the Crimean War and was later killed. I wonder if his bible was with him at the end offering him peace and solace in his final hours? 

The bible is currently under quarantine and will soon be accessioned into the Collections. It will join other archives, photographs and objects held within Alma Block which we look after and protect for the future. Michael Bray can be assured that his bible will be carefully stored here at the Museum. 

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