Members of Medway-based art group Explore & Draw came together at the Royal Engineers Museum with the purpose of creating this exhibition inspired by what they discovered. Each artist has each responded in their own unique way, some drawing directly from personal connection to the Royal Engineers, or the inspiring stories of others contained within these walls.
UBIQUE
Jo Eden
NFS
My piece centres on my search for my grandfather Albert Edward Flanders, who died the year before I was born.
I noticed the RE motto is Ubique which means Everywhere. But for me, Albert was nowhere. I was as if I was looking through the wrong end of a telescope, seeing only the snippets that my father Horace (who was in the Royal Engineers) had told me. Albert was a Navy man who had travelled the world.
I discovered that my father had compiled a photo album in which I found a few images relating to Albert. I began to research his Naval record, was surprised to find he was in the Navy from 1914 to 1941, joining as a Motor Coach Builder and working in ship’s Engine rooms. He was often shore based at H.M.S. Pembroke in Chatham. He sometimes passed through Sheerness during ship’s passages. Once, he was stationed on a submarine. Unwittingly, I have followed in his footsteps as I live on Sheppey now and have established links with Medway.
I have a commemorative leaflet of one journey of 33,000 miles that Albert took on H.M.S. Sussex around the Med from 1929 to 1931. I have just one copied postcard of Albert’s actual words, sent to his mother, on the back of the only picture I have of him with his family. I imagine myself into his world in my writing. I am displaying my work on a writing desk passed down through our family – a symbol of communication.
I did not know Albert had two sisters and a brother. I was shocked to discover that his brother George was in the air force in the early 1900s and died in 1919, for my father never spoke of him.
I have brought grandfather, his lost brother and my father together in my piece and I am sure there is more to discover.
Ethiopia’s fight to win back looted treasures
Margaret Whelehan
British troops looted and plundered thousands of precious artefacts from the Ethiopian King Tewodros at the battle of Maqdala in 1868.
The Maqdala conflict began in 1860 when the Coptic Christian Emperor Tewodros II asked Queen Victoria for support in training his army. The government ignored his request, and angered by this, the Emperor took a party of European officials and missionaries hostage.
The British government’s reply was to send an expedition to rescue the hostages. The British suffered few casualties but killed hundreds of Tewodros’ troops. Tewodros committed suicide to evade capture.
The fortress of Maqdala was destroyed, and then looted of the treasures it contained, assembled by Tewodros to establish Maqdala as a place of learning. Many of these objects were auctioned off to raise prize money for the British troops, a common practice among the military at the time.
In recent years many museums have come under pressure to return looted items and are working with communities and other institutions on the process of decolonisation. This is a process that recognises the role of Empire in British museums, but also addresses the suffering caused by the display of objects, provides context, dialogue with communities and in some cases works towards returning the objects.
Explore & Draw at the Royal Engineers Museum runs from 4th April to 25th June
4 April 2023