The 2010 Army List (Part 1) has now been published in to a new searchable Electronic format and is available to purchase on CD-Rom.

Army List in Book Format

The ‘Official Army List’ in printed book format, effectively dates back to 1740. The first book was printed in 1740, the next book printed was not until 1754 and then it was an annual publication up to the early 1800’s. In the first part of the 19th century we then had a mixture of both annual and bi-annual publications. In the latter half of the 19th century up to the 1st world war we had quarterly publications and throughout the war periods we had monthly publications.

Army List in Electronic Format

Due to the recent signicant MOD cut backs it was decided that the published Army List would no longer be printed after 2005. This was met with some concern, both internally within the MOD and also externally where these books have been a valuable source of information for more than 250 years.

TownsWeb Archiving offered a solution by way of the E-Army List. An annual reproduction of the Army List part 1 in electronic format delivered on CD.

The new electronic version means much speedier retrieval of information and allows searching on name, regiment and rank.

Orders

The 2010 E-Army List is priced at £39.99 + £4.95 P&P and can be ordered at: www.townswebarchiving.com/earmylist

1. TWA exported the existing Regimental data from an existing Council system based around Modes and Multimimsy.  TWA then worked with the Trustees in order to ‘cleanse’ the data and import  it into a new database.
2. TWA imported the new database in to the TWA ArcView System.
3. The TWA ArcView System has been expanded to allow Regimental staff and volunteers to log in to the system (via any location that has an Internet connection) in order to maintain their database of 65,000 soldier records (Have You A Tiger In Your Family) and their database of medals and awards.
4. A list of Citations and associated images were imported in to the TWA ArcView System.
5. TWA scanned all back copies of the ‘Green Tiger’ which is the Regimental journal.  Dating back to 1904, it recorded news and events about the Regiment for more than 60 years and then about the Regimental Old Comrades’ Association for nearly 50 years.
6. TWA designed a new website for the Regiment and incorporate the soldier records, medal database, citations and the Green Tiger journals.  Members of the public would be able to search for family names and ranks in the soldier and medal records.  Members of the public and researchers would also be able to flick through past and present copies of the Regimental journal.
7. The new website also includes Regimental history, information about the museum and also news and events.
8. The TWA ArcView System was developed in such a way that Trustees and volunteers were not only able to maintain the soldier and medal databases but were also able to update other information on the website – such as latest news and events (without any knowledge of website development).
9. The website incorporates a remembrance feature called ‘Remember a Tiger Today’.  Each day the website displays details of a soldier who died on that particular day in history.
10. The museum is still be a focal point of contact for those interested in the Regiment and so TWA made all of this content available via a PC within the Museum.

Read the article here:

Arc Magazine Article PDF Format

2014 sees the beginning of a series of centenaries marking the First World War.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) can provide funds to help you mark these important anniversaries by exploring the history and legacy of the war and helping people understand is impact on communities across the UK.

Please click here for more information.

A collection of more than 2,800 ‘Cadet End of Term Report Sheet’ have been digitised, transcribed and added to the site.

These records contain such details as:

• Name of Cadet
• Date/Term
• And comments from the Company Commander with regards to the Cadet in relation to:
  • Ability
  • Conduct
  • Characteristics
  • General Remarks

The reports make very interesting reading.  Some comments regarding the Cadet’s Characteristics:

“He is inclined to overestimate his ability and express his opinion a little too freely.  He has otherwise made good progress and shows promise.”

“Failed last term but has worked hard this term and will do very well.”

“He is keen and above average at his work.  Shows distinct signs of determination and a sense of discipline.  Is a bit handicapped & indifferent…”

“A slow but good worker.  Always alert.  Has commonsense and will make a good Officer.”

“Takes care in his work.  Has worked well.  Really good sportsman.  A useful AGO.  Good in parade with a good sense of duty.”

You can search these records at http://archive.sandhurstcollection.org.uk/ (look for Type = Term Report).

We are always looking to add new content to the Sandhurst Collection website so please continue to keep an eye on it!

You can read further information about the Sandhurst Collecton website here.

The collection of 350 photographic prints illustrate the history of the Borough Road College, a predecessor college to the University, showing officers and sporting teams over a period from 1895 to 1948.

‘The main drivers for digitising the collection,’ said Mandy Mordue, Head of Archives at Brunel, ’were, in the first instance, to preserve the photographs themselves, and then to make them more accessible and available for a recent exhibition.’…

Read more…

Due to company growth we are currently looking for people with the following skills to work from our picturesque studios in Kettering, Northamptonshire:

• PHP/MYSQL Web Developer
• Sales Consultant
• Office/Admin Assistant

Please refer to our website for full job descriptions:

www.townswebarchiving.com/recruitment

Please forward covering letter and CV to:

recruitment@townswebarchiving.com

Royal Leicestershire Regiment Website

The Royal Leicestershire Regiment was founded in 1688 and served with distinction around the world until being merged into The Royal Anglian Regiment in 1964.

The Regimental Trustees wanted to make some major changes to the management of  their existing databases of soldier and medal records, which could not be updated by themselves.

Therefore it was imperative to encourage and open up other forms of contact and mechanisms for accessing their growing archive through technology and the Internet.

The Regimental Trustees had previously met TownsWeb Archiving Ltd (TWA) through the Army Museums Ogilby Trust (AMOT), and had seen some of the work that they had undertaken for other regiments and were interested to see how TWA might be able to help them…

Read more…

After scanning the Cemeteries records, TownsWeb, working with Kingston’s IT team, designed and developed the burial records search pages, providing remote public access online to search records and download pages.

Re-visit this project, and see how TownsWeb can help you and your business:

http://www.townswebarchiving.com/clients-case-studies/cemeteries-crematorium/digitisation-transcription-online-searches-of-cemetery-records/

The Heritage Lottery Fund has just agreed an increased budget for new awards in 2012-13 of £375m. This budget represents an increase of £120m over their

2011-2012 budget and is made possible by the increase in the heritage share of good cause income to 20% in April 2012, and continuing record ticket sales.

A number of other changes will also be introduced, with a strategic plan for 2013-19, which will be launched next May.

More detail and finalised budgets for 2012-2013 will be announced in the spring.

Other changes include :

HLF will be introducing a number of changes to programmes which respond to customer feedback and help manage business even more effectively, from April 2012:

• Committees will take local decisions on more Heritage Grants applications – up to the value of £2m (currently £1m).
• The upper limit for Your Heritage grants will be increased to £100,000 (from £50,000).
• The upper limit for Young Roots grants will be increased to £50,000 (from £25,000). It will also support projects engaging a wider age range of young people (from 11 – 25 years old) and the maximum length of a project will be increased to two years.

They will introduce single stage Heritage Grants applications by exception when there is an urgent external deadline, for example on partnership funding.

For further information on changes :

http://www.hlf.org.uk/HowToApply/programmes/Pages/Informationforapplicants2012.aspx

For further information on how to apply for Heritage lottery funding :

http://www.hlf.org.uk/HowToApply/Register/Pages/registerandapply.aspx

Its recommendation on digitisation and digital preservation states that the UK should “pool their resources” in digitising cultural material.

The UK have also been urged to adopt national strategies to ensure long-term preservation of digital materials, increasing the number of cultural objects available online.

Targets for each member state have also been set, with the UK called on to digitise 3.9 million objects over the next four years.

You can read more about this on the Museum Association website.