The Museum collection is an almost unique representation of a Territorial infantry regiment in its passage through the last hundred years and includes material referring to Liverpool Scottish Rifle Volunteers that goes back to 1859. It includes a collection of rare Highland uniforms and accoutrements dating from 1900, medals and decorations, equipment and weapons and a very important collection of over 4000 photographs, the documentation of which is constantly updated as new sources come to light. There is 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.
Much material
remains in the hands of families but to which the Museum has
access. For example,
the diary of Serjeant 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.
Material continues to 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 the Commando forces and the connection between The Liverpool Scottish and The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. Click here to see cases containing
Items of full dress uniform circa 1900
Dress and equipment for front line service circa 1916
Further items of early full dress (Captain RFB Dickinson) and items from the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders including a pipe banner
No
1 Dress Ceremonial items from Lt General Sir Colin
Barber, Honorary Colonel of the L:iverpool Scottish in
1950's and early 1960's. Click on the piper icon to play
the tune '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 and I
am 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)
A very plain white china chamber pot appeared 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 later 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 recent acquistion
is the family collection, including pre-Great War dress uniforms, of the Dickinson brothers, three men who were commissioned in to The Liverpool Scottish during the Great War and, of whom, only one survived. This came to the Museum through the generosity of the Dickinson family.
There is a 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.
It is intended to expand this to be a more complete account of the Regimental Museum collection.