A new partnership arrangement between the serving Corps, Regiment Association and veteran volunteers has been forged to enable the RAF Regiment to celebrate its short but eventful history by enabling a greater access to its own Museum based at RAF Honington. The Museum has always played an important part in Regiment life and is now housed in an extensive facility within RAF Honington.
Due to the increasing burdens on serving staff and the rationalisation of all but the most pertinent of roles, the Museum has not achieved its full potential. A recent survey on line, of past and present RAF Regiment gunners, indicated that a large proportion did not even know that the Regiment had its own Museum. The online community decided to help and set up their own web page on Face Book . Within 48 hours it had over a thousand supporters. As luck would have it some of the original and local veterans were members of the RAF Regiment Association and contacts were then made with RAF Honington and Training Wing in particular, who are responsible for the Museum.
The plan is that the volunteers will man and open the Museum one week end a month from April to October this year and evaluate the results. Access will be in the form of guided tours around the facility and booking will be through an online facility at the RAF Regiment Association web site www.rafregt.org.uk There will be two tours per day on the each day of the designated weekend, one at 09:30 and one at 13:30
The dates are as follows:
27/28 April,
18/19 May,
29/30 June,
27/28 July,
31 Aug/1 Sept,
28/29 Sept,
26/27 Oct.
Sqn Ldr Dave Vick, Chief of Staff Training Wing, who has been instrumental in spreading awareness of the Museum amongst the serving community said:
“We are looking forward to working with our retired colleagues on this worthwhile project. The Museum is a valuable Corps asset and although the existing volunteers and Trg Wg staff have done a tremendous job, the pressures of an operationally focussed modern Service have meant that the Museum has sometimes not always received the level of priority that it deserves.
That the Regiment Association is willing to assist us with the running of the Museum is a prime example of the strong bond that exists between serving and retired Corps members.”
Jeff Stevenson, Chairman of the RAF Regiment Association added:
“The Association is pleased and proud to support a greater awareness of our Corps and the increase in access to our Museum will ensure that. We have already undertaken to support the Museum just as we support other Corps assets like the Memorial at Alrewas and the Chapel at St Annes. The partnership involving the volunteers is especially worthy as the staff working there will be the ones who have lived this history especially since the end of the Second World War.”
Alan Pinnion spokesperson for the Volunteer group said:
“This new venture between the volunteers, the RAF Regiment Association and Training Wing, RAF Honington, is aimed at making the Museum more accessible to both veterans and those currently serving . Eventually in the long term it is hoped the general public will have access as well. All volunteers are ex serving members of the RAF Regiment and we aim to assist in the improvement of the museum and its facilities, helping both the Association and Training Wing. By giving time freely to guide people around the museum as well as servicing the equipment we feel we can contribute a great deal to benefit the museum. Our payback is that we are interested in our Museum and have first hand knowledge of many of the exhibits and their history through service in the RAF Regiment. We also add continuity to the operation of the Museum as we have all settled in the local area.”