REME Museum
REME Trades in the Archive:
Armourer
W
e thought that it would be of interest to readers to provide a glimpse of what our archives reveal about the history of REME trades. Although the focus in this series of articles will be on the current eight REME trades, it is worth mentioning that some of the historic trades (in 1942 there were 59) are represented in the archives as well. This series of articles was inspired by the excellent piece entitled History of REME Trade Changes since its Formation in 1942, by the museum’s former Pictorial Archivist Malcolm Heppolette, which appeared in the REME Journal, Issue No 22, 2011. We are not, therefore, attempting to write a detailed story about each trade (for which we would probably need a whole issue of The Craftsman to ourselves), but only to provide a selection of what we have in the archives relating to our trades. Armourer’s Quarterly Inspection Report (A: 2012.5588)
REME Workshop Malta, 1944 (A: 1962.0510.07)
REME Airborne Personnel, Op MARKET (E: 08.0006) 38 craftsmaneditor@reme-rhq.org.uk
Armourers’ Job Book December 1951 (A: 1975.1398)
We start off with Armourers, Gun Fitters included, which were amalgamated into the Armourer’s trade in 2001. All the material in our archives is donated, so unfortunately, we may not have everything that there is about a particular subject. The archives holds official and personal collections, including, but not restricted to, documents, photographic material and drawings. These items reflect various aspects of life as a REME Armourer. Although we are looking mainly at the paper (2D) material, the museum’s collections include objects too such as: tools, tool boxes, tool bags, badges, medals and more. All this material helps us to tell the stories of REME Armourers around the world, from the Second World War right through to more recent times. The following examples relating to the Second World War are from the official records in our archives such as war
Armourer’s Mobile Workshop Korea (E:13.1503.037)
