The Royal Signals Museum is a military museum based at Blandford Camp in the civil parish of Tarrant Monkton, northwest of the town of Blandford Forum in

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The museum traces the history of the British Army’s battlefield communications experts from the introduction of the telegraph in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

to the secretive story of

cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...

and

cyber warfare Cyberwarfare is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation or economic wa ...

History

The Royal Signals Museum was founded in

Catterick, North Yorkshire Catterick () is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, it is north-west of the county town of Northallerton just to the west of ...

during the 1930s. It moved to its current location of Blandford Camp in 1967. An appeal which generated £1 million enabled the construction of a new wing in 1995 and complete refurbishment of the exhibits completed in 1997. The museum was reopened in its new form on 28 May 1997.

Collections

The museum holds the national collection of army communications. It presents the role of communications in wars and military campaigns over the last 150 years. One of the objects on display includes a chair used by senior Ashanti chiefs when seated in public. Based on a European folding chair, the object was presented by Major General Sir Reginald Curtis in 1921. The museum also displays a number of objects worn by

Eric Lomax Eric Sutherland Lomax (30 May 1919 – 8 October 2012) was a British Army officer who was sent to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in 1942. He is most notable for his book, '' The Railway Man'', about his experiences before, during, and after Wor ...

during his time as a Japanese POW, Pigeon NS 15125 William of Orange who received the Dickin Medal, as well as the

Ptarmigan ''Lagopus'' is a small genus of birds in the grouse subfamily commonly known as ptarmigans (). The genus contains three living species with numerous described subspecies, all living in tundra or cold upland areas. Taxonomy and etymology The ge ...

message centre. The museum also displays one of the world's last remaining cable wagon's, which saw service between 1911 and 1937.

References

External links

Museum website

Entry
in the

24 Hour Museum Culture24, originally the 24 Hour Museum, is a British charity which publishes websites, ''Culture24'', ''Museum Crush'' and ''Show Me'', about visual culture and heritage in the United Kingdom, as well as supplying data and support services to ...

1930s establishments in England Museums established in 1967 Museums in Dorset Regimental museums in England Military communications of the United Kingdom Royal Corps of Signals {{UK-museum-stub

History

Collections

See also

References

External links