Museum Welcomes New Patron

We could not be more delighted to announce that Field Marshal David Richards has agreed to be the Patron of the Royal Artillery Museum. 

 

The twelfth Gunner to reach the highest rank in the British Army, he had an exceptionally distinguished military career which culminated in him serving as Chief of the Defence Staff from 2009 to 2013. He was created a life peer in 2014. 

 

Outside the Army he is perhaps best known for his actions in 2000 during the Sierra Leone Civil War during which he commanded a rescue task force (for British and foreign nationals) which he independently transformed into an operational grouping which supported the embattled president and ensured that Freetown was effectively defended against the rebels. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his actions at that time in West Africa.

 

On his appointment as Patron Field Marshall Richards noted:

 

"I am deeply honoured to be appointed the Patron of the Royal Artillery Museum in succession to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second. The museum holds arguably the finest collection of artillery in the world, along with the most important regimental archive in the British Army - a product primarily of the extraordinary achievements of the Regiment in the First and Second World War. It is also a living collection with many examples of recent Gunner equipment, medals and oral histories. 

 

While the inevitable move out of Woolwich (as the Regiment's home came to Wiltshire) has been disruptive, the end-state of a new museum nestling on Salisbury Plain beside Larkhill Camp provides the best possible way to get our unique collection back on public display and available to support vital regimental training and education. I am delighted to be able to contribute to the work of the oldest regimental museum in the country, and to the delivery of the future Royal Artillery Museum project."