Lancashire Fusiliers Museum Visit
Lancashire Fusiliers Museum.
On Friday 21st March the Society went for a guided tour and cream tea at the Lancashire Fusiliers Museum in Bury.
We were shown around by Paul Dalton, a raconteur who gave an entertaining and instructive commentary on the exhibits.
The Museum is arranged in the form of a timeline which takes in the regiment’s participation in virtually every war of the last 300 years. The displays are enlivened by lifelike models which show the uniforms and weapons at various periods.
The Regiment was originally founded in 1688 at the time of the Glorious Revolution. For a time it was known as the Twentieth Regiment of Foot (XX). It did not become the “Lancashire Fusiliers” until 1881. In 1968 the Lancashire Fusiliers joined three other Regiments to become part of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
Our Chairman, Jack Barrett, was present at the Disbandment Parade of the Lancashire Fusiliers in 1968 in Hong Kong. He was on the radio co-ordinating the fly-past of helicopters.
They were called “fusiliers” because they used a gun called a fusil, which had its explosive charge fused in the barrel.
One notable officer in the Regiment’s history was James Wolfe, the conqueror of Quebec. Paul pointed out that the painting of the death of Wolfe was based on the famous Pieta (death of Christ). The same artist later painted the famous Death of Nelson scene based on the Wolfe picture.
One of the great moments in the history of the Lancashire Fusiliers was the “Six VCs before breakfast”. These were earned in April 1915 at the landings in Gallipoli. The whole regiment distinguished themselves that day so the medals were to honour all of them. The regiment was asked to choose 6 recipients for the VC, being instructed to choose 2 officers, 2 NCOs and 2 privates.
The Fusiliers Museum currently has five of those VCs and is searching for the sixth.
In the Second World War the regiment only gained one VC. This was for Fusilier Frank Jefferson who destroyed two tanks with a primitive rocket launcher in 1944 at the Battle of Cassino. Sadly Frank later became an alcoholic and committed suicide.
Our guide also told us about the Fusilier’s involvement in the Boer War (1899-1902) and the debacle at Spion Kop, where they took control of a hilltop only to find at dawn that it was overshadowed by two higher hills held by the Boers.
Above : Table Centrepiece Memorial, listing Lancashire Fusiliers who took part in the Boer War.
The part of the exhibition relating to the First World War focuses on three lads from Salford in the Fusiliers who “went over the top” on the First Day of the Battle of the Somme ( 1st July 1916). This is a very important and informative part of the display especially relevant at the 100th year anniversary of WW1.
Paul then took us into the boardroom of the Lancashire Fusiliers which contains an impressive amount of regimental silver and portraits of leading figures in the Regiment’s history.
After that the group enjoyed an excellent cream tea in the café at the Museum.
Our thanks go to Amanda and Sheila for arranging the visit ( and of course Paul Dalton).
“Fusiliers” like several other regimental titles (dragoons, hussars, rifles/light infantry,tanks, paras)commemorates a development in weapons and/or tactics. “Fusil” is still the French for a sharpening stone (scythes and chisels etc) or flint for sparking and became their generic word for all guns as flintlocks took over all firearms in the last decades of the 1600’s.
Initially fusiliers with their safer and more reliable flintlock muskets were used as escort and guard duties for ammunition particularly powder which then was packed in barrels, or the new-fangled paper cartridges which had increased the rate of fire enough for colonels to cut the numbers of pike companies even before the arrival of the plug bayonet about the same time as flintlocks. When the ring bayonet arrived in the 1690’s the pikes were relegated in 1700 – excepting as a sergeant’s tool of office. They were used to hold horizontal across the backs of lines of musketeers to discourage “breaking” in action or to make a tripod to tie a prisoner being flogged.