Dozens of small regimental museums are to lose Ministry of Defence (MoD) funding by the end of next decade, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The Daily Telegraph writes:
Parts of the country are being cut off from their historical military links as the Ministry of Defence ends funding to a string of Army regimental museums, it has been warned.
More than a dozen museums are set to lose their money in April as the MoD scales back funds used to pay for curators and staff.
Several of the museums have already closed their doors in advance and moved to share premises with other regiments. Others are hoping to stay open by raising money elsewhere.
Military figures said the cuts risked robbing parts of the country of links to their historic local regiments.
They come as part of a long agreed MoD plan to reduce the number of Army museums it funds from 67 to 36 by the end of next decade. By then the MoD will fund only one museum for each of the current British Army regiments.
Other collections commemorating historic regiments which amalgamated in recent decades to form modern day units will have to find other ways of staying open.
But the MoD funding cut comes as many museums face a double blow by losing local government grants because of deep austerity cuts to council budgets.
There are also fears the next round of MoD funding cuts to museums, when more are due to lose their money in 2030 will now be brought forward because of Treasury pressure on the MoD to make savings.
The Regimental museums losing MoD funding in 2017 are:
- Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars Regimental Museum, Eastbourne
- Museum of The King’s Royal Hussars, Preston
- 13/18 Royal Hussars and The Light Dragoons Museum, Barnsley
- Gordon Highlanders Museum, Aberdeen
- Surrey Infantry Museum, Surrey
- Royal Hampshire Regt Museum, Winchester
- The Fusiliers Museum of Northumberland, Alnwick
- Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Museum (Royal Warwickshire), Warwick
- Essex Regiment Museum, Chelmsford
- York and Lancaster Regt Museum, Rotherham
- Royal Welsh Museum – Firing Line, Cardiff
- Rifles – Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum, Gloucester
- Mercian Regt Museum, Worcester
- Shropshire Regimental Museum, Shrewsbury.
