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A poster advertising Living History Weekend 2022 at The Devil's Porridge Museum.

Living History Weekend 2022

By Events

Saturday 30th July – Sunday 31st July 2022

All Activities Free with Admission into the Museum.

 

Get an insight into what life was like during World War One and World War Two with our living history weekend.

 

 

The Scottish Home Front Living History Society will give people an insight into how both civilians and soldiers lived during the Second World War by using the equipment, vehicles, and clothing from that time. They will help to make the past feel more tangible by showing the equipment working and demonstrating how it works and what it felt like to use. You will get to handle many of the objects, which will help to bring the past to life.

They will also have some suffragette reenactors to give an insight into the struggles of women protesting for the right to vote and how this affected their everyday lives.

 

Five people dressed as Suffergettes outside.

 

On War Service will be offering the opportunity to learn about First World War with an insight into medical care during that time. They will be inside the museum in uniform to share their enthusiasm and show you some medical equipment and domestic treasures from the time. Over the weekend they will be providing short specialist talks on the Spanish Flu Pandemic, the Role of the VAD and WW1 Hospitals in Dumfriesshire, and the Treatment of Shell Injuries. You can see the full talk programme for the weekend below.

 

 

You can learn more about On War Service on their website here: https://onwarservice.org.uk/onwarservice/homepage.html 

 

A photo form the 2019 Military Vehicle Event.

We hope this Living History Weekend event will build on the success of our Military Vehicle Weekend in 2019. You can read more about this here>

 

Another photo of a Military Vehicle Weekend event at The Devil’s Porridge Museum in the past.

The Extraordinary Life of the Drummond Sisters online talk poster

The Extraordinary Life of the Drummond Sisters.

By Events

24th May 2022.

The Extraordinary Life of the Drummond Sisters: From Queen Victoria to HM Factory Gretna.

Book your place and learn more here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-life-of-the-drummond-sisters-from-queen-victoria-to-hm-factory-gretna-tickets-328938863997?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

We’re delighted to announce our first event that is happening both in person at The Devil’s Porridge Museum and online on Zoom. Tickets cost £3.

Hear the story of the god daughter of Queen Victoria who became the first female Marine Engineer in Britain and the first woman to be accepted into the Institute of Marine Engineers.

From a quiet early life at Megginch Castle Perth-shire she went on to serve an engineering apprenticeship in Perth & Dundee, overcoming the early prejudice of the engineering world to sail as 2nd Engineer on both Arctic and Atlantic convoys during World War 2 receiving commendations for her action under enemy fire.

With her sister Jean, who had worked at the munitions factory at Gretna during World War One producing ‘The Devil’s Porridge’, she also established the ‘Victoria Drummond Canteen’ in Lambeth which provided food to victims of the London Blitz throughout World War Two.

The Extraordinary Life of the Drummond Sisters talk will be given by Neil McGarva, who as well as spending 40 years working in the Nuclear Industry has also been involve with the Devil’s Porridge Museum since it started 25 years ago as a small exhibition in a local church, and is currently the museum secretary.

If you chose to attend The Extraordinary Life of the Drummond Sisters talk online the Zoom link will be sent out on the day.

Tickets for those who choose to attend the talk in person at The Devil’s Porridge Museum will be sent out on the day.

Some soldiers carved into stone.

Online Talks 2022

By Events

The Devil’s Porridge Museum is pleased to continue it’s popular programme of online talks and events for 2022. These online talks are all about  a subject which links to local history or the themes of the Museum. All events are free.

Tickets are now avalible for the following online talks.

 

From the Western Front to the Scottish National War Memorial

Tuseday 12th April 2022.

Book on Eventbrite here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/from-the-western-front-to-the-scottish-national-war-memorial-tickets-308135971987?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

 

The story of illustrator Morris Meredith Williams and his wife and creative collaborator, sculptor Alice Meredith Williams ARBS.

 

In the run-up to the First World War, artists Morris and Alice Meredith Williams were leading a quiet life in Edinburgh. He was illustrating books and teaching drawing at Fettes College. She was making small, often whimsical, sculptures in clay and bronze, and designing stained glass windows.

 

The outbreak of war changed everything. Morris spent four years in the army, three of them in France – first in the infantry, then the artillery and finally, in a camouflage unit. When not on duty, he filled pocket-sized sketchbooks with detailed pencil drawings of his fellow soldiers and their surroundings. Alice’s work slowed down until, in 1917, she was asked by the Women’s Work Sub Committee of the Imperial War Museum to model a collection of 3D plaster panoramas of the roles played by women during the war. The Scottish architect Sir Robert Lorimer was impressed by them and invited her to collaborate on a war memorial for a town in South Africa. It was Alice’s first large-scale work and led to commissions for the Paisley War Memorial and for the Scottish National War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle. Here, the marriage of Morris’s painstaking draughtsmanship and Alice’s brilliance as a sculptor produced the remarkable the frieze around at the centre of the memorial.

 

This talk will be delivered by Phyllida Shaw.

Phyllida Shaw studied history and French at Lancaster University and has worked for 35 years as a researcher, writer and facilitator in the arts and voluntary sector. She inherited the First World War sketchbooks and letters of Morris Meredith Williams from her great aunt (Williams’ second wife). She is the author of An Artist’s War. The art and letters of Morris and Alice Meredith Williams (The History Press, 2017) and Undaunted Spirit. The art and craft of Gertrude Alice Meredith Williams (Independent Publishing Network, 2018). She has given talks on these two extraordinary artists for the National Archives, the Royal Society of Sculptors, the National Galleries of Scotland, the Public Statues and Sculpture Association, the Western Front Association and literature festivals in Henley, Lichfield and Taunton.

This event will be held via Zoom and a joining link will be sent on the day.

Illustration of HMS Temeraire.

HMS Temeraire

By Collections blog

This Postcard of HMS Temeraire is one of the many WW1 postcards we have of battleships. If you would like to know more information about other battleships check our website.

 

HMS Temeraire was one of three Bellerophon-class dreadnaught battleships built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She spent almost her whole career assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets. Aside from participating in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and the inconclusive Action of 19 August, her service during World War One generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.

 

Temeraire was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in October 1918 and she supported allied forces in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea after the War ended in November. The ship was deemed obsolete and was reduced to reserve when she returned home early in 1919 and was then used as a training ship. Temeraire was sold for scrap in 1921 and broken up the following year.

Front cover of Gretna Parish War Memorial book.

George Johnstone PTE Canadian Scottish

By Collections blog

George Johnstone, Age 21, Private (420625) 16th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, (Canadian Scottish).

 

Born 1844 in Hoddom, Dumfriesshire. Son of the late Maragaret (Little) Johnstone and of Christopher Jonstone. Brother David Johnstone of Cove Railway Cottages, Kirkpatrick Fleming, Dumfriesshire. Husband of Ellen (Dodds) Johnstone of 55 Florence Avenue, Kells Lane, Low Fell, Gateshead, who he married in Gateshead in 1916.

 

George was working as a labourer when he enlisted at Winnipeg Manitoba in December 1914. He sailed from Montreal in June 1915 and was posted to the 16th CIF in France in October 1915. George was taken ill at Ypres in June 1916, was diagnosed with rheumatic fever at the Canadian Hospital at Boulogne and evacuated to England where he spent some months in various hospitals until he was posted to a Training Battalion. While serving in the South of England he was granted permission to marry in November 1916. George returned to France on 27 August 1917.

 

Killed in Action – 12 October 1917

 

Commonwealth War Grave – Sucrerie Cemetery, Ablain-St. Nazaire, France.

Haaf Net Fishing Exhibition Removal

By News

For a number of months, the Devil’s Porridge Museum has had an excellent exhibition on display focusing on the ancient local practice of Haaf Net Fishing.  On Monday, Derek from D&G Council came to collect the exhibition and was surprised and pleased to see that it had grown in its time with us!  Lots of people have come forward after visiting or hearing about the exhibition to donate objects, photographs or oral history testimonies.  We’re really pleased to pass on these objects so that they can go with the exhibition as it travels to showcase the story of this interesting fishing technique and the unique social history and culture connected with it.

 

To find out more about the exhibition and practice of haaf net fishing see: https://museumcrush.org/the-centuries-old-scottish-viking-tradition-of-haaf-net-fishing/

A person standing in the evacuee section of The Devil's Porridge Museum.

School Assemblies

By News

Did you know that only one woman in Scotland appears on a War Memorial for those who died in the First World War? Her name is Roberta Robertson and she appears on Dumfries War Memorial. What was she doing in the War? How did she die? why was she commemorated?

 

Have you ever considered how animals contributed to the War effort and continue to serve in conflicts around the world? Hear stories of animal bravery, learn about the Dickin Medal, and did you know that a bear served in the Second World War and then moved to Scotland?

 

If you’d like to arrange an assembly or presentation to your whole school or class (either in person or remotely via videolink), please email or phone us to arrange something different for your school this Armistace Day. We can guarantee unusal accounts students are not familiar with, a local perspective on the War, knowledgeable speakers with entusiasm for the subject and lots of images and objects. Hope to hear from you soon!

Roundabout near Gretna Gateway. This photo is from the past.

Old Gretna Drop-in Session

By Events

A chance to talk with Judith Hewitt, Manager of The Devil’s Porridge Museum about objects in the Museum collection.  Judith will showcase maps, photographs and objects relating to Gretna in World War One.  Come along if you’d like to take a look and discuss any aspect of local history with her.

A child's Mickey Mouse Gas Mask on display in The Devil's Porridge Museum.

WW2 Gas Masks

By Collections blog

One of the gas masks which we have on display within the Museum is a kids Mickey Mouse gas mask from WW2. These masks were desinged to look like Mickey Mouse to appeal more to children and to encourage them to wear them. Children were asked to keep their masks within reach at all times, which meant they had to take them to school stored in a box with string on it to go over the child’s shoulder, they also had to keep them next to their bed at night and when they were doing general activities in the event of a sudden German gas attack. Kids were sometimes told to wear the masks in class while they were at school, presumably to get the children more used to wearing them so they wouldn’t struggle or refuse to put them on in the event of a gas attack. 10 million of these masks were made and distributed in 1938 in the event of the outbreak of war.

 

On display with the Childs Mickey Mouse gas mask is a gas mask for babies which is designed to cover the top half of the child and strap around them like a nappy which allows means only their legs are exposed. These gas masks were issued to every child up to 2 years old in 1938 when all citizens were issued a gas mask in the event of an outbreak of war. These gas masks were tied securely which made it air-tight, and had a big visor so that the child could see out of it. These gas masks were fitted with an asbestos filter which absorbed poisonous gas, attached to this was a rubber tube with a handle which was used to pump air into the mask which would be used by the child’s parent or any other adult present. Many paretn doubted these masks as they were very skeptical about putting their child in a completey air tight mask. There were also reports that during demonstrations babies fell asleep and became unnaturally still inside the masks. It is likely that the pump didnt push enought air into the mask and the babies came close to suffocating, luckily this was never put to the test.

 

These two gas masks were made safe by a professional from Kadec Asbestos Management with some of the other gas masks we had kept in the Museums store cupboard. This was kindly funded by Museums Galleries Scotland and allows us to better our Museum collection by making the gas masks we have in our possession safe for public viewing and for staff who work with the objects.

 

WW2 National Defence Pocket Book

By Collections blog

This Pocket Book is from WW2 and covers a wide range of subjects which anyone fighting in WW2 would need to know such as labelled gun diagrams showing where everything is, Navy, Army and Air Force badges and a morse code guide. This post highlights some areas of the booklet and future posts will follow which will cover some of the other pages in the booklet.

 

 

This page shows the Army, Navy and Air Force ranks and also shows the morse code alphabet and numerals so that soldiers can send secret messages and understand incoming communication.

 

 

This page shows all of the military conventional signs which would be seen on a map, it also shows instructions on how to read maps and setting a map to find a location.

 

Here is the contents page which shows everything in the booklet that would need to be known by soldiers serving in the Armed Forces. We will be posting more of the pages that caught our eye in the coming weeks such as the Royal Navy ships, Rifle mechanism, bren gun description and the knots, bends and hitches.

 

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