We’ve had the pleasure of showing Richmond School Year 10 student, Sam Collier-Gent what it’s like to work in a museum.
As well as bravely sampling our Assistant Curator’s baking over the week, Sam’s been researching one his own relative’s military history, dealing with research queries from visitors and browsing the galleries to understand more about our collection. He took the opportunity to discover more about this 19th century sword…
“This is a tribesman’s sword from the Tirah campaign from the North West frontier province in Uttar Pradesh in India. It was given to the museum by the Ministry of Defence in 1963.
I am interested in this weapon because it’s a great object from this specific time period. I am a fan of ancient and older weapons and something that is 125 years old really catches my attention.
The Green Howards were involved in the Tirah campaign in 1897, essentially part of a number of confrontations and skirmishes with the local tribes. The area was basically a cul-de-sac in the mountains where the legendary fierceness of the Orakzai tribes, coupled with the inhospitable terrain, made conditions very difficult for the soldiers trying to maintain and exert British Empire control in the area.”