News

At the AGM on 29th May, members learned of the resignation of Ms Lilian Macdonald, though were very pleased that she will remain as a volunteer.  Mrs Jackie Wright, who had previously served on the Management Committee, has been made a Trustee.

At the AGM on 29th May, Mrs Vanessa Martin, Newsletter Editor, was appointed to the Management Committee, to replace Mr James Holden who recently left the area.

After much hard work by our army of volunteers since the turn of the year, we have now reopened and look forward to welcoming you!

Please consider visiting our bookshop and gift shop for the best collection of specialised books in Town. If you are not certain which to buy we also have our own book vouchers.

Current news is that ‘TripAdvisor’ has recognised the West Highland Museum with a 2013 Certificate of Excellence.This prestigious award places us in the top-performing 10% of all businesses worldwide on TripAdvisor, because we have consistently earned high ratings from TripAdvisor travellers.We thank all our visitors for their endorsement!

We have been working with the considerable support and expertise from colleagues in the University of Edinburgh and the National Museum of Scotland, who gained grants from The Leverhulme Trust and the Centre for Research Collections, to make the Carmichael Watson Collection available on line.  Initially loaned and then gifted to the Museum by the Late Michael Carmichael, the recent research has revealed the importance of this Collection, the majority of which we are privileged to hold.The website was launched on 26thApril at the West Highland Museum  and can be seen at http://www.carmichaelwatson.lib.ed.ac.uk/cwatson/

Over the Winter we have been fortunate to have harnessed the energy of a dedicated band of volunteers who have cleaned the Museum from top to bottom and completely remodelled Room 6.  Come and see it for yourself!

Over the past few weeks we have been working hard to open our Commando Exhibition for which we have received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Museums Galleries Scotland and the Scottish Community Fund.  This exhibition has been developed in collaboration with the Commando Veterans Association and will be open by the end of March.

With inspirational vision and guidance from Glasgow-based Stuco Design and huge individual voluntary effort, our Commando Exhibition is now open.   We are very grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund, Museums Galleries Scotland and the Scottish Community Fund for supporting this exhibition.  Throughout the development of this project we have worked in close collaboration with the Commando Veterans Association and we look forward to continuing this in the future.

Never has the museum been so full! On Saturday 10th November some 250 Commandos and their families packed the Museum to see the opening of the new Commando display which has replaced the Model T Ford exhibition which has moved off to the Nevis Centre.The ribbon was cut by Stan Scott, Chairman of the Commando Veterans Association, who led the way into Room 1 closely followed by WWII Veterans and their families.With the help of the Commando Veterans Association we have put together a display to tell the story of Commando Training in Lochaber in WW2. The very name Commando was invented here at Achnacarry where 25,000 men went through the toughest military training of WWII. They became skilled in shooting, the use of explosives, unarmed combat and silent killing and took part in landing assaults on nearby Loch Lochy where live ammunition was used. They came from Britain, the occupied countries, the USA and Canada and left for daring raids on mainland Europe, the Mediterranean and the Far East. On display we tell the story of how the lawless city of Shanghai led to the design of the Fairburn Sykes Commando knife. We have on display much Commando kit – from a first pattern F-S knife and a Thomson machine gun to Blanco and a Commando string vest!Other related events over the Remembrance Weekend included interviews of Commandos by pupils from Lochaber High School and the free distribution of a limited edition reprint of “The Achnacarry Green Beret Gazette”, a weekly news leaflet produced in Achnacarry in November 1944. .We tell of the diversity of Commandos – from Raymond Hervo, a French cobbler by trade who came back to live in Fort William, Norman Banks’s silk handkerchief – revealing a map of Norway which was sewn into his trousers to assist any escape necessary after the raid on the Lofoten Islands , and the story of Bill Harvey, the Commando who didn’t come back – he was killed in 1944 in a raid on Holland.We have footage from a 1946 film on training at Achnacarry and of the unveiling of the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge. The display is open until we close before Christmas and, if our funding applications are successful, we will be constructing a full professional exhibition on Commando Training for Spring 2013. We thank all those visitors who have left us their contact details to help support our ambitions. Please email Colleen, our manager at colleen@westhighlandmuseum.org.uk if you too would like to be kept informed of our progress.