Notes From the archives: 1LI in Korea, by Martyn Horton, Light Infantry Archivist
Many of the ex-Light Infantry men among you will be well aware of the museums dedicated to the former county Light Infantry regiments. But did you know that the regimental museum in Bodmin, as well as having the DCLI and LI collections, also holds the Light Infantry archive? This means that we look after documents and photographs from 1968 to 2007, covering all battalions regular and territorial. The archive was moved to Bodmin from Winchester, and in my role as volunteer archivist I am beginning the task of exploring and cataloguing its contents. As a former member of the regiment, this is proving an interesting task for me, and I’ll be sharing some of the more unusual things I come across in the museum’s e-newsletters in future. I hope you’ll all get in touch with your comments and get involved with the museum.
The museum itself is an independent registered charity with only two full-time professional staff, supported by volunteers. To enable the museum to continue its work it relies on income from its supporters and donations, without which it would be unable to carry out its work in the future. We are always keen for former members of the regiment to get in touch and support us in whatever way they can. For those of you not local to Cornwall we will be at the Light Infantry Reunion in Shrewsbury next year, so please some along and say ‘hello’. Also at next year’s reunion will be Paul Cocoran, ex 2LI, who will be completing a 50 mile walk with 50 men to celebrate 50 years of the formation of the regiment. Paul is aiming to raise funds for the Light Infantry Association walking from Hereford to Shrewsbury over three days finishing on Friday 15 June. You can support Paul’s 50 50 50 challenge here.
For this issue of my ‘Notes From the Archives’, we’ve added our first photograph to give a flavour of what is available. It shows a group of soldiers from 1LI in Korea. We’d love to hear from anyone who was there, or who knows anything about the Korean trip. More photographs will follow in future newsletters – so keep an eye out, you never know you might even see yourself!
Names on the rear of the photograph are: Cpl McElroy, Ptes Bradley, Hill, Cpl Kinloch, Ptes Sicolo, Carter, Butler, L/Cpl Hoare, Cpl Cross.
Sadly Raymond Paul Sicolo passed away in October last year.
If you recognise anyone, or have anything interesting to tell us about this photo or it’s content, please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you. Email info@bodminkeep.org