This morning my wife and I travelled across London to the Olympia Exhibition Centre in Kensington to pay our annual visit to the WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? show.
For some reason they used the same cerise coloured carpet as they had done on previous years. Although my wife quite likes the colour, even she thought that it was a bit too garish!
As it is the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War – and the seventieth anniversary of the Normandy Landings – there were more military-related exhibitors than usual. In fact a whole section at one end of the Gallery was set aside for these exhibitors.
Our first port-of-call was to the Military Memorabilia Checkpoint, where we hoped to get some help trying to understand my father-in-law's Army Record. (He had been called-up in 1940 and done his basic training with the 50th Holding Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment. He was then posted the the Royal Signals, and remained in Scotland working as a linesman for some time. Whilst still serving with the Royal Signals he was trained to be a cook, and when the Army Catering Corps was founded, he was transferred to the new Corps.)
We were extremely lucky in that the current Curator/Manager of The Royal Logistic Corps Museum in Deepcut – Andy Robertshaw – was on hand to help us.
Andy Robertshaw
Andy is a well-known military historian who has appeared in many TV programmes (including the BBC series TWO MEN IN A TRENCH, Channel 4's TIME TEAM, and The History Channel's BLOOD AND BULLETS) and who is also an expert on the history of the Army Catering Corps. He was able to 'fill in the gaps' for us, and gave us some vital information that helped us to date several photographs as well.
We spent the rest of our time looking around the show and buying one or two items that will be of help in my wife's genealogical researches.
This year the show seemed to be a bit less crowded (we had gone on a Thursday rather than on a Friday, and this might account for the fewer people around), and we found it much easier to walk around and to look at what was on show on the numerous exhibition stands.
For some reason they used the same cerise coloured carpet as they had done on previous years. Although my wife quite likes the colour, even she thought that it was a bit too garish!
As it is the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War – and the seventieth anniversary of the Normandy Landings – there were more military-related exhibitors than usual. In fact a whole section at one end of the Gallery was set aside for these exhibitors.
Our first port-of-call was to the Military Memorabilia Checkpoint, where we hoped to get some help trying to understand my father-in-law's Army Record. (He had been called-up in 1940 and done his basic training with the 50th Holding Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment. He was then posted the the Royal Signals, and remained in Scotland working as a linesman for some time. Whilst still serving with the Royal Signals he was trained to be a cook, and when the Army Catering Corps was founded, he was transferred to the new Corps.)
We were extremely lucky in that the current Curator/Manager of The Royal Logistic Corps Museum in Deepcut – Andy Robertshaw – was on hand to help us.
We spent the rest of our time looking around the show and buying one or two items that will be of help in my wife's genealogical researches.
This year the show seemed to be a bit less crowded (we had gone on a Thursday rather than on a Friday, and this might account for the fewer people around), and we found it much easier to walk around and to look at what was on show on the numerous exhibition stands.
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