The final day of my Museum Crawl Weekend and we visited Winchester. I had one specific target for this leg of the trip, the Waterloo Diorama in the Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum.
This museum brings together the collections of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, the King's Royal Rifle Corps and the Rifle Brigade. These regiments went on to form the Green Jackets Brigade in 1958 and the Royal Green Jackets Regiment in 1966.
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Private, 60th (Royal American)
Regiment c 1758 |
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| This paiting depicting the 3rd Bn, 60th Rifles somewhere in Zululand in 1879 |
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| Diorama of the Battle of Vimiero, 21st August 1808. It shows the 5th/60th, the 2nd/95th and the 1st/95th firing on the French. |
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| An Infantryman of the Greenjakets at the start of the 'Road to Waterloo exhibition |
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| The route of the Imperial Guard at Waterloo by Jason Askew |
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| The capture of a French Battery by the 52nd Regiment at Waterloo by Ernest Crofts RA |
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| The exhibition, entitled “With the Rifles to Waterloo”, opened in 2015 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, is focused on the Napoleonic Wars. The centrepiece of this exhibition is the Waterloo diorama, a 25 square metre model of the battlefield with 30,000 model soldiers and horses. |
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| The scale of this model is breathtaking but it doesn't represent a single moment rather it is an amalgamation of important events. |
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| The Duke of Wellington and his staff |
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| British Square resists repeated attempts by French Cavalry to destroy them. |
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| Looking down from Hougoumont towards Le Haye Sainte |
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| Hougoumont Chateaux |
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| Le Haye Sainte |
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| Cavalry as far as the eye can see! |
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| The Thin Red Line |
Of course, the museum is not just focused on Waterloo and includes displays of the whole history of the regiment and its antecedents.
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| Assault on the Kashmir-Gate, September 1857 |
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| Artefacts from WW1 |
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| The Rifle Brigade in North Africa |
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| Pegasus Bridge |
There is a lot more to see although it has to be said the Waterloo Diorama does tend to steal the show.
I live in Winchester so I'm spoiled for choice with military museums!
ReplyDeleteYou are indeed! I was going to visit the Hussars Museum as well but it was shut yesterday. I did get to do the Gurkha museum though, and that was very good. I'll definitely be coming back to Winchester again for a longer visit.
DeleteWow. A lot to look at there. That Waterloo diorama does look superb.
DeleteLooks a lot of fun Lee.
ReplyDeleteA very interesting little museum covering a long history.
DeleteNice, would be interesting to see how the information and stories compare with the Salisbury Rifles museum.
ReplyDeleteAnother one to add to my must visit list!
DeleteWhen in the reserves in the '80's they tried to assign me to the RGJ as I was living in Milton Keynes. No! No! No! I was RRF! (Royal Regiment of Fusiliers to those who don't know). You can't do that.
ReplyDelete