Liverpool Scottish Museum Archive

The Archive

With the demise of the physical museum the main effort is now to preserve the ''Story of the Regiment'' by displaying the collection and the archive in a virtual museum rather than a physical one. This is an ongoing process and will develop over time. The collection here represents the collection in the now defunct Liverpool Scottish museum.

THE COLLECTION & ARCHIVE

There are a collection of diaries and scrapbooks such as the edited diary of Frank McDonald, who served with the 2nd Battalion, going to France and Belgium in early 1917 and returning to England to be commissioned later that year. He returned to the 1st Battalion in October 1918 (which had by then amalgamated with the 2nd Battalion) in time for the final advance together with an excellent assemblage of the ephemera which military life produces.

The archive is being photographed (to produce usable JPEG images) as well as catalogued in some detail.

An audio collection of piper tunes is also maintained. Click to play ''The Liverpool Scottish Salute to ''Tiny'' Barber''.

[In the “Cabar Feidh Collection", Pipe Music of the Queens Own Highlanders (Seaforths and Camerons)”]. This tune is credited to Pipe Major Evan MacRae of the Queens Own Cameron Highlanders. (We are indebted for this information to Mr. Alastair Duff,  grandson of J.S. Duff who served with the Liverpool Scottish from 1914 to 1919 as Regimental Quarter Master Serjeant and who rejoined after the war having been a pre-war volunteer.)

Go to the Piper tunes page for a more complete pipe music experience.

Much material remains in the hands of families but to which the Museum has access. For example, the diary of Sergeant W.G. Bromley MSM contains a fine copy of a menu card drawn in the field by a professional artist who was also a soldier with The Liverpool Scottish for a dinner held by the officers of the 1st Battalion to celebrate the award of the first Victoria Cross to Captain Noel Chavasse RAMC in 1916. A fine signed copy of this menu is held by the Army Medical Service Museum.

FORBES HOUSE

Material has come to the Museum both from Liverpool families and those spread more widely. At Forbes House, the location until June 1999, display cases were organized to illustrate the early history of the Liverpool Scottish Rifle Volunteers (from 1859), the formation of the Volunteer battalion and its part in the Boer War and the Great War. Other cases reflected the role of the Liverpool Scottish soldiers who formed part of he Commando in WW2 forces and the connection between The Liverpool Scottish and The Queen''s Own Cameron Highlanders.

 Items included a full dress uniform circa 1900, Dress and equipment for front line service circa 1916, Items of early full dress (Captain RFB Dickinson). Items from the Queen''s Own Cameron Highlanders including a pipe banner, No 1 and dress ceremonial items from Lt General Sir Colin Barber, Honorary Colonel of the Liverpool Scottish in 1950s and early 1960s.

A very plain white china chamber pot appears in a case with the splendid dress uniform of Colonel C. Forbes Bell VD, the Regiment''s first Commanding Officer. In the bottom of the pot is set a glass disk, a monocle, dropped from the eye of the Adjutant of the Regiment early in its history at a review in Edinburgh as he rode behind the Commanding Officer. The men of the Liverpool Scottish are said to have marched over the monocle as it lay on the parade ground, to be picked up after and set into the chamber pot which is known as ''The Adjutant''s Eye'', and was used for drinking toasts in the Sergeants'' Mess

An example of an acquisition is the family collection, including pre-Great War dress uniforms, of the Dickinson brothers. The three Dickinson brothers were commissioned in to the Liverpool Scottish during the Great War only one survived. This materialcame to the Museum through the generosity of the Dickinson family. There is fine collection of Liverpool Scottish badges and insignia representing all phases of the history.The Museum maintains an extensive database of soldiers who served, founded on original material in its possession supplemented by extensive research, which records many details of origin and service. The Museum is in contact with researchers, both professional and amateur, who share an interest in The Liverpool Scottish. Our ultimate aim is to place in detail much of the collection on the website.

POSSESSIONS of the REGIMENT

The Liverpool Scottish Regiment holds artifacts which were in the possession of the Officers'' Mess, the Sergeants'' Mess and the Forbes Club (Junior Ranks) or held by the Museum.

There is a small but fine collection of interesting oil paintings showing officers of the early period in various forms of dress together with other watercolours and chalk drawings. They are now displayed in a variety of locations. A set of silk pipe banners of The Liverpool Scottish as a battalion of The Queen''s Own Cameron Highlanders exists. The Colours presented to the Regiment in 1937 by H.M. King George VI are now laid up on the staircase of Liverpool Town Hall. Other Colours are in Liverpool Cathedral and the Scottish National War Memorial.

 MEMORIALS

There are a number of memorials to the memory of those who served with the Regiment. The Trust is dedicated to preserving these memories of our fallen. The current location of these memorials are recorded in the Regimental Family section of this site.

Following the closure of Forbes House in Childwall, Liverpool, the memorials were removed to the newly located Liverpool Scottish Regimental Museum at Botanic Road. Click for of the Redication Service at Botanic Road (June 9th 2002).

First World War Memorial taken from the Fraser Street Barracks (Liverpool) in 1967 and subsequently placed in Forbes House containing the beautifully illuminated Roll of Honour. This is now in St George''s Hall, Liverpool.

Second World War Memorial added to the First World War Memorial (new in St George''s Hall, Liverpool).

A finely carved wooden triptych memorial plaque for the First World War from St. Andrew''s Church of Scotland in Rodney Street, Liverpool and subsequently moved to Forbes House and then to Botanic Road. This will now be placed in the Garrison Churchof St Alban at Fulwood Barracks in Preston, adjacent to the Lanchashire Infantry Museum and RHQ, The Duke of Lanchaster''s Regiment.

Details of some of The Liverpool Scottish customs on Remembrance Sunday will be found by using this link. This has has now been removed to the new Liverpool Scottish Regimental Museum

The memorial to Captain Noel Chavass VC and bar, MC which was placed in Forbes House in 1979, moved to Botamic Road and now held by Liverpool College (Noel Chavasse''s old school in Liverpool) for display in their chapel.

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