Royal Canadian Regiment Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Royal Canadian Regiment Museum is a military museum in London, Ontario, Canada.
Although original architectural drawings of Wolseley Hall show space allocated to a museum, the current, the museum in its current form was officially opened in 1977 during the royal visit of H.R.H. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. It is dedicated to the exploits of the Royal Canadian Regiment. Artifacts displayed in the museum cover the unit's activities from the Yukon Gold Rush to their current work in Afghanistan.
The archive includes many items donated by people in the London area including diaries going back to the Napoleonic era. There is a scarf on display which was hand knit by Queen Victoria during the Second Boer War (one of 8 that she made, and the only one on display in North America). Four scarves were presented to soldiers of the British Army, and four to soldiers of colonial forces (Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa).
Outside the museum is a display of artillery, some going back to the Boer War. Other items of interest are a wooden cross from Flanders Fields, a recreation of a World War I trench and a street from the Italian Campaign.
One of the early highlights of their collection was the Victoria Cross of Milton Fowler Gregg which was donated in 1979, but was stolen the following year and never recovered. It is believed that this will eventually be recovered as it is currently on an Interpol watch list for stolen items and cannot legally be sold.
The museum also holds the medals of General Charles Foulkes, the man who along with General Johannes Blaskowitz signed the German capitulation agreement at the Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen (Netherlands) on May 6, 1945, effectively ending World War II in Europe.
