The Friends of The Museum of The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment

(Registered Charity No 1120003)

The Friends is an active organisation which provides a focus and a forum for all those with an interest in military history in general, and that of Lancashire, The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, and its antecedent regiments in particular.

By doing so, the group helps the Museum to preserve and promote the most important regimental heritage collection in the North West of England, and one of the most important in the country.

Founded in 2001, the Friends became an independent charity registered with the Charity Commissioners in 2007.

The Friends:

• Raise funds to support the Museum, which receives only minimal public funding and depends heavily on financial assistance from private Regimental charities and fund-raising and donations from the public.

• Organise a busy annual programme of study days and evening events. These offer opportunities for in-depth examination of specific aspects of Regimental history. Drawing on the Museum’s extensive and often unique archives; sometimes featuring Regimental veterans of the campaign being studied; and often led by nationally-recognised experts, these Study Days are designed not only to be academically and educationally valid for the serious student of military history; but also entertaining and enjoyable for those with a more general interest. Recent study days have included the Regiment’s campaigns in Afghanistan, Arnhem, Aden, Iraq, Malaya, Northern Ireland, and The Somme.

• Run annual Battlefield Tours to areas of historical Regimental interest – which, given that the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment was the only Regiment in world history which fought on every inhabited continent, provides an inexhaustible range to choose from. Since 2001 the Friends have visited Belgium (The Siege of Namur 1695 and the Battle of Waterloo 1815), France (the Retreat from Mons 1914, The Somme 1915, Ypres 1915-18,Normandy 1944, ), Turkey (Gallipoli 1915), Italy (Anzio and Cassino 1944), and Spain and Portugal (The Peninsular War 1808-1814).

• Publish “Lancashire Lad,” an annual magazine which combines the latest Museum news with illustrated features highlighting fascinating stories from the Regiment’s history. First published in India in 1885, “Lancashire Lad” was the Regimental Journal of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, and then the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, until amalgamation into the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment in 2006. It is the oldest continuously-published Regimental Journal title in the British Army.