PWRR & Queen's Museum

PWRR & Queen's Museum Our collections and displays tell stories of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment and Queen’s Regiment from their beginnings right up to today.

Find us in The Keep Yard of Dover Castle!

Knight Commander Order of The Dooranee Empire 2nd ClassThis unusual medal was awarded to Major General John Gregory Bau...
15/06/2026



Knight Commander Order of The Dooranee Empire 2nd Class
This unusual medal was awarded to Major General John Gregory Baumgardt CB. John enlisted in to the army as an Ensign 1798 at just 14 years old. He moved through the ranks by promotion or purchase finally reaching Major General in 1851.
During his career he served at the Cape of Good Hope, in the Second Mahratta War, at the storming of Ghuznee and Khelat and was court-martialled.

The Order of The Dooranee Empire was instituted by Sha Soon a-ool Moolk as thanks to Great Britain for their assistance and as a reward to British officers.

John received the second class (there are three classes similar to the Order of the Bath) the first and second class have a star and a medal(as seen in the image). The medal ribbon is the same as the Ghuznee Medal ribbon.

”durr-i-durran" in Persian script, means "pearl of the age", the name attributed to the Durrani dynasty.

(The spelling alters depending on the source- Dooranee/ Doranie/ Durani/ Durrani/ Dooranie/ Dooranie)

We will look at another of Johns medals next month….

Today is The 100th Anniversary of The Turning Of The Page, The daily ceremony of The Turning of The Page within The Re...
13/06/2026


Today is The 100th Anniversary of The Turning Of The Page, The daily ceremony of The Turning of The Page within The Regimental Chapel in Canterbury Cathedral.
Today at 11am Warrant Officer Class 1 J Beharry VC COG will conduct the ceremony alongside veterans from the Buffs, The Queens Regiment, and the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment.

Leonard's story continues....Leonard quickly returned to the frontline in the trenches near Le Rutoir. A diary entry fro...
12/06/2026

Leonard's story continues....

Leonard quickly returned to the frontline in the trenches near Le Rutoir. A diary entry from a member of the Field Ambulance notes a, “steady stream of wounded, among whom is Lance/Corporal Keyworth VC…hit in the head…”
Leonard was moved to a hospital at Abbeville but died of his wounds without recovering consciousness on 19th October 1915 aged only 22.

His memory was to live on. The Borough of Southwark raised funds to ‘perpetuate his memory’ and in 1916 the money was given to LCC and called the “Keyworth VC 1915 Memorial Prize Fund”- the interest from the fund went to provide two school prizes each year for five schools in the borough. - one of which is in our archive-

The image shows the school name, who it was awarded to, year and why she received the award.

The book is “Lorna Doone”. Ivy herself donated the item in 1998, her father had served in the Middlesex Regiment another of our forebears.

Leonard also had a school named after him in the 1950’s ‘Keyworth School’.

A quick look at what we have done this year- Satsuma Surgery, Fancy Dress, family trails, paper crafts and much more.Wo...
11/06/2026



A quick look at what we have done this year- Satsuma Surgery, Fancy Dress, family trails, paper crafts and much more.

Would you like to join our volunteers and be part of our outreach team helping organise and run events like these?
https://pwrrqueensmuseum.co.uk/volunteer/

Last month we shared the medals of L/Cpl Leonard James Keyworth VC. This month we wanted to share more of his story.Leon...
10/06/2026

Last month we shared the medals of L/Cpl Leonard James Keyworth VC. This month we wanted to share more of his story.
Leonard the youngest of 2 children lived in Lincoln and sang in the Choir of his local Methodist Church.
His Father was a tailor with his own business so Leonard followed in his father's footsteps becoming a Tailors apprentice. But when war broke out Leonard, aged 21 joined 1/24th Bn the London Regt and by March 1915 he was fighting on the frontline at Givenchy, France

Quickly Leonards bravery was recognised when as the last man standing he continued to as he put it, do “[…] my duty”, “The bravery of my officers […] filled me with a ‘to do or die feeling’”. Leonard described his actions to his sister ‘.. I was with the bombing party, and the only one to come through without a scratch. I went along a ridge on my stomach and threw bombs into a German trench. My distance being about 15 yards’. In his letter to Lillie his sister he expressed surprise at his award.

His fellow soldiers remember his actions as brave and with little thought for his own personal safety, - “seeing that we were done for, Keyworth laid hold of all the bombs he could get, and springing up on to the enemy parapet, kept pelting them with bombs […] It was a mercy he escaped, for all the time the Germans were shooting at him madly. He kept it up for over two hours, and his audacity paralysed the whole German counter-attack.”

For these actions he was awarded the Victoria Cross, presented to him in July 1915 by King George V at Buckingham Palace.

for more on Leonard watch out for Fridays post

June is Papercraft Challenge month so come and try out your skills- PWRR & Queen's Museum at Dover Castle Tackle an orig...
05/06/2026

June is Papercraft Challenge month so come and try out your skills- PWRR & Queen's Museum at Dover Castle
Tackle an origami tiger or maybe try your hand at camouflage 🐯📜🪖

We are so grateful for our amazing volunteers. They turn their hand to any task and are always cheerful. We could not...
02/06/2026



We are so grateful for our amazing volunteers. They turn their hand to any task and are always cheerful. We could not manage without them!
THANK YOU 🙏🎉

The Glorious 1st of June celebrates a Naval battle that took place during the French revolutionary war 1793-1802.⚓From t...
01/06/2026

The Glorious 1st of June celebrates a Naval battle that took place during the French revolutionary war 1793-1802.⚓
From the summer of 1793 The Queen’s served with the fleet commanded by Admiral Howe. On the 1st of June a naval attack began at 9am continuing through to the afternoon. The battle was hailed as a success with the British capturing 7 French ships. In recognition of their efforts The Queen’s were awarded a Naval Crown on their regimental colour. To this day The PWRR retains its relationship with the Royal Navy through its close links with HMS Excellent.

The Captain and Officers of HMS Excellent presented these Silver-Plated Plaques to the Depot of the Queen's Royal Regiment to commemorate the close association between HMS Excellent and the Regiment its dated 1st June 1794 to 1st June 1952.

We all know biscuits are a must for any happy workplace and PWRR & Queen's Museum we are no different, just ask our vo...
29/05/2026




We all know biscuits are a must for any happy workplace and PWRR & Queen's Museum
we are no different, just ask our volunteers!!

If you would like to join our volunteers for tea, biscuits and fun click on the link below for more information - https://pwrrqueensmuseum.co.uk/volunteer/

This piece of writing comes from the Christopher Man collection. Christopher and Cpl F Wookey were both Prisoners of Wa...
27/05/2026


This piece of writing comes from the Christopher Man collection. Christopher and Cpl F Wookey were both Prisoners of War during The Second World War held at Kobe Camp by the Japanese.
The handwritten report, details an accident that took place on 11th October 1944.
Cpl F Wookey was working in a Kobe warehouse when he was knocked unconscious by a stack of h**p. He collapsed face first injuring his face, jaw and right ankle. He was taken to a Japanese hospital for an X-ray on his ankle but failed to look at his facial injuries.
The following day Wookey was admitted to the Kobe Camp hospital where he remained till the 24th October. A Japanese doctor continued to administer treatment until late November. Unfortunately in January 1945 Wookey reports he is still unable to bite properly.

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Dover Castle, Castle Hill
Dover
CT161HU

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