Collection: Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The principal antecedent regiments of The Royal Green Jackets are:

  • The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (43rd and 52nd)
  • The King’s Royal Rifle Corps (60th Rifles)
  • The Rifle Brigade (95th Rifles)

  The collections of The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum (“the Museum”) originate from the 1920s, when, after the First World War, the antecedent regiments created museums to display the artefacts and other material, which, over the years, had accumulated in their possession. In 1966 the antecedent regiments merged to form The Royal Green Jackets. In 1989 the collections of The King’s Royal Rifle Corps and The Rifle Brigade were amalgamated and The Royal Green Jackets Museum established at Winchester. Part of The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Museum collection was included with the balance transferred to the ownership of The Royal Green Jackets Museum Trust in 2007, after which The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Museum at Oxford closed.

  On 1 February 2007 The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment, The Light Infantry and The Royal Green Jackets merged to form a new regiment, The Rifles. The forming regiments retain their own museums. In 2009 The Royal Green Jackets Museum was re-titled The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum to reflect inter alia the Museum’s link to the new regiment.

  In December 2012 the Museum’s archive collection in Winchester was deposited with Hampshire Record Office for a minimum period of 20 years. The Museum Trust retains ownership of the collection.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2022

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Existing collections cover the period 1741 when the 43rd Regiment was formed to 2007 when The Royal Green Jackets were merged into The Rifles. The collections include items from across the world reflecting the geographic areas in which battalions and members of The Royal Green Jackets and its antecedent regiments served.

  The aggregation of the collections of the antecedent regiments has resulted in the Trust owning rich and varied collections primarily of weapons, uniforms, medals, portraits, pictures, photographs, models, books, documents, personal records, band instruments, silver, porcelain and artefacts of a military, historical nature. In total, there are over 55,000 accessioned items, including 13,000 objects, 6,600 medal groups, 25,000 photographs, 10,000 archival documents and a substantial library of books.

  Almost all the Museum’s collections have been acquired through donation rather than purchase. A small number of items of particular significance to the Regiment are held on fixed-term renewable loan. Additionally, there are a small number of legacy items, which were loaned to the museums of the antecedent regiments before 1989, current ownership of which is uncertain or unproven, principally because the original owners have died or disappeared without trace.

  The Museum collections are currently split with just over 80% at Winchester, known as the Winchester Collection, and just under 20% on fixed-term renewable loan to The Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust in Oxfordshire, known as the Oxfordshire Collection.

  The Winchester Collection is primarily housed in a MOD brick-built building in Peninsula Barracks. Exhibition and storage space is limited, with the majority of the artefacts on permanent display in the principal Museum building to which the public have access during opening hours. There is a small reserve collection which is divided between a long term storage facility at West Dean and a short term storage facility provided by an adapted ISO Container on MOD land adjacent to the Museum.

  The Oxfordshire Collection is subject to the terms of a Management Agreement between the Trustees of The Royal Green Jackets Museum and the Trustees of The Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum (SOFO) dated 27 June 2008. Following a review of the Oxfordshire Collection under the custodianship of SOFO those objects that they did not wish to retain were returned to The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum in September 2015 for disposal procedures: SPECTRUM Primary Procedures on disposal and the Museums Association (MA) Disposal Toolkit dated March 2014.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2022

  Licence: CC BY-NC