REME Museum of Technology (Part 1)

This morning we paid an impromptu visit to the REME Museum of Technology at Arborfield. We wanted to go somewhere local, but that we’d never been to before, so this fit the bill perfectly. We were both surprised at how big the Museum was, and also how good the displays were. I have to say that we’d looked at the Museum’s website and pre-judged the place a little, so we were very pleasantly surprised when we arrived.

The main Museum building has lots of displays of different types of technology. There are lots of recordings to listen to, a slightly animatronic guard (who told us off for not having shiny boots!), and uniforms for the children to try on. It mostly looks at the period 1939-45, but there are much older objects in the small arms room, and some more recent developments too. We saw communications technology from the Falklands, and photographs of some current equipment being used in Afghanistan.

These medals made me pause, because I’m fairly certain they’re the same ones that my Grandad had. From left to right they’re The 1939-1945 Star, The Africa Star and The 1939-1945 War Medal. These three were awarded to a driver in Africa, which is pretty much all I know about my Grandad’s role during the Second World War. He drove lorries, and he went to Africa. Beyond that I don’t know anything, because he simply refused to talk about it. When we found my Grandad’s medals, they were still in their original brown cardboard box, ribbons folded, wrapped in paper. They were kept in a drawer in the dining room, underneath the tea towels.

This little box (about 12cm/5″ square) is part of the food ration and contains, believe it or not, a tiny stove. The tablets warned against on the box are blocks of hexamine – like modern firelighters. I love the way that “DANGER“ has been emphasised with capitals, bold, quotation marks and underlining, just in case you’ve somehow missed the point.

I tried to take pictures of some other glorious examples of typography, but it was a little bit too dark. My favourite leaflet was a set of instructions for what to do if you should escape after having been taken prisoner. Seventeen pieces of advice, beginning with “Air your feet” and ending with “DO NOT GET FLUSTERED”. Not quite as snappy as “KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON”, but important advice nonetheless!

You can see more photos here.