A royal visit to Lancaster next month will help cement the city’s place as the North-West city of heritage.
Dr Christopher Tinmouth, chairman of the Friends of Lancaster City Museum, is preparing to welcome HRH Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester to the museum on Tuesday December 17.
Chris works with the Duke on the Richard III Society, which honours King Richard, who was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in Leicestershire in 1485.
Richard had been created Duke of Gloucester by his brother, Edward IV in 1461. So, the present Duke, Patron of the society since 1980, is his namesake and direct descendant.
As Patron also of the British Association of Friends of Museums (BAFM), he will be recognising the valuable work of the Friends of the museum.
“I hope we can grow in confidence in our mission to support our municipal museum through the prestige this royal visit brings,” said Chris, who graduated from Lancaster University a year ago with a PhD in history and is a tour guide at Lancaster Castle.
“Ultimately, we are looking to use this visit to encourage investment in and visitor attraction to the City Museum and increase our membership.”
Everyone is invited to the Friends’ annual meeting on Saturday November 30 when new members and committee members will be welcome.
Former curator of the museum Andrew White, an honorary friend, will talk about the Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway 1836-49 during Victorian times at 2pm before the annual meeting at 3pm, with access from New Street.
The Friends were formed 20 years ago, under the chairmanship of the late Jim Price, when Lancaster City Council controversially proposed the closure of the museum in Market Square and its move to Lancaster Town Hall.
The Friends and the community strongly opposed the idea, and it was dropped.
“This is a golden opportunity for Lancaster to bring its own story into the light and to display the crowning jewels of our region’s heritage for all to see,” said Chris.
“This can, and should, be a spur for investment in the collected heritage of Lancaster – and its shire – to truly be worthy of standing among the great heritage cities of England.
“Time is honoured in Lancaster and the time is now to seize our destiny.
“Let us stand as proud Lancastrians, in service to our noble Duke of Lancaster (The King), to be the very best in ourselves and our county and change our present through honouring our past.
“I want this royal visit to be the beginning of great things for Lancaster and its museum.”
The museum is owned and run by the city council and the Mayor, Coun Abi Mills, will be among the welcome party.
The Duke, who was 80 in August, will tour the museum, which celebrated its centenary last year and also houses the museum of the King’s Own Royal Regiment.
The regiment and its successors have the Freedom of Lancaster, as has the King and Princess Alexandra, former Chancellor of Lancaster University, Colonel-in-Chief of the King’s Own Royal Border Regiment and a cousin of the Duke and the late Queen Elizabeth.
For Chris, this will be his third encounter with the Royal Family.
Two years ago, on the day before Queen Elizabeth’s death, he welcomed Edward and Sophie as Earl and Countess of Wessex (now the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh) to Lancaster Castle on the opening of the Lancashire Police Museum.
Then last year he was a guest at a garden party at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, given by the King to commemorate his Coronation.
Now, Chris is newly inspired and looking forward to the Duke of Gloucester’s visit and what it might bring to Lancaster and its City Museum.
The Duke is also taking part in commemorations on the same day, marking the centenary of the war memorial in the Garden of Remembrance alongside Lancaster Town Hall.
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