The Combined Military Services Museum in

Maldon, Essex Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea Salt which is produced ...

, was opened on 5 July 2004. It was set up by Richard Wooldridge to house a personal collection he had created over many years. A charity was established in 1996 to facilitate the funding of a museum building. A suitable property was found in 2001, a former bonded warehouse in Maldon. This underwent considerable modification to suit its new purpose. In the period of setting up the museum, the initial collection was expanded by donations and acquisitions. In 2007, a National Lottery grant was given to extend the museum to house the

Donnington Historic Weapons Collection The Donnington Historic Weapons Collection is a collection of weapons accumulated by MoD Donnington in Shropshire, England, over a long period of time. It is now housed at the Combined Military Services Museum in Maldon, Essex, England. The colle ...

. These works were completed in November 2008. Amongst the items in the museum is a

Cockle Mark II canoe The Cockle Mark II was a type of Canoe used by the Royal Navy during World War 2. Surviving Example The Combined Military Services Museum in Maldon, Essex houses the only surviving original Cockle Mark II kayak used by the Royal Marine Raide ...

from the "cockleshell heroes" raid,

Operation Frankton Operation Frankton was a commando raid on ships in the German occupied French port of Bordeaux in southwest France during the Second World War. The raid was carried out by a small unit of Royal Marines known as the Royal Marines Boom Patrol D ...

, as well as a large collection of

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

(SOE) equipment and the Donnington Historic Weapons Collection. The Donnington collection also holds a replica of the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

metal, a piece of bronze from a captured cannon from which all Victoria Crosses have been made. The original metal is still closely guarded within

MoD Donnington MoD Donnington is a British military base situated to the north of Donnington, Telford, Shropshire. History The site was chosen in 1936 as one of a number of less vulnerable locations for storing ordnance and other military equipment previously ...

. Amongst the rarest items in the museum are the Riggal Papers. These are the training records of Captain P M Riggal, an instructor in the SOE, found 50 years after the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. On 7 September 2016, nearly 100 artefacts from the museum's SOE and Mason collections were shipped to the

Musée de l'Armée The Musée de l'Armée (; "Army Museum") is a national military museum of France located at Les Invalides in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It is served by Paris Métro stations Invalides (Paris Métro and RER), Invalides, Varenne (Paris Métro ...

in Paris for an exhibition called "''Guerres Secretes''" ("Secret Wars"), to run from 12 October 2016 and to 29 January 2017.

References

External links

Combined Military Services Museum website
* Musee de l'Armée
''Guerres Secretes''
{{coord, 51.7349, 0.6832, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Maldon, Essex Museums in Essex Military and war museums in England