Colonel A F George, papers and collected research material relating to the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia) and Great Castle House, Monmouth

The papers reflect both Colonel George's position as Honorary Colonel of the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia), from 1997 to 2006, and his historical research interests. They include papers relating to his work supporting and promoting the Regiment, setting up the Regimental Charitable Trust and working on the resolution of a dispute over a right of way over the parade ground at Great Castle House, Monmouth. They also include much historical research material as well as papers relating to his work as a trustee of the Castle and Regimental Museum, Monmouth, over a long period. Note that they do not include any papers relating to his time as an officer of the Regiment 1969-1992

Anthony F George has had a long and distinguished career with the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers Militia (RMonRE(M)). He joined 225 squadron as a Captain in 1969; promoted to Major in 1974, Lieutenant Colonel in 1980 and Colonel in 1984, he was Commanding Officer from 1980 to 1982, and retired in 1992. In January 1997 he was appointed Joint Honorary Colonel, a position re-titled Honorary Colonel in 2004, and which he held until mid-2006.

A qualified solicitor and retired Company Secretary in civilian life, he is extremely interested in the history of the Regiment and of Great Castle House, Monmouth, its headquarters. He has contributed a great deal to understanding this history, carrying out a considerable amount of detailed historical and archival research over a number of years. He was a very active trustee of the Castle and Regimental Museum, first as ex-officio trustee while Honorary Colonel 1997-2006, and subsequently as a trustee in his own right 2006-2016

Guided by the original order of the papers, the arrangement outlined below has been adopted. However, note that there are some overlaps between the different sections, reflecting the ways in which different issues arose and were dealt with: for example, the dispute over the right of way necessarily involved much historical research, so that historical material will be found in this section as well as in the Historical Research section. Significant overlaps are noted at the relevant places in the catalogue.

DGEO/1 Papers relating directly to work as (Joint) Honorary Colonel

DGEO/2 Papers relating to Officers' Mess Trusts

DGEO/3 Papers relating to the Regimental Charitable Trust

DGEO/4 Papers relating to Right of Way Dispute and 'Secret Garden'

DGEO/5 Historical Research material

DGEO/6 Papers relating to position as a trustee of the Castle and Regimental Museum Trust

Access to much of the material is restricted under UK data protection legislation as it contains personal information, and occasional 'special personal data', on living individuals. Access may exceptionally be granted to bona fide researchers, on application to the honorary museum curator in the first instance. Details of access restrictions to individual items are noted in the catalogue, with dates that the restrictions will end.

The papers were donated by Colonel George to the Castle and Regimental Museum in March 2021.

A number of sets of minutes of trustees' meetings are included in the papers. These are the donor's own sets. Other sets may exist elsewhere, in the papers of other trustees

The majority of the papers were received in lever-arch files and ring-binders, with a small number loose. In order to ensure their long-term preservation, they have been repackaged: papers have been removed from the files, with the original order maintained by means of archival tape threaded through the existing holes in the papers. The contents of each file were then tied into bundles with archival tape and placed in acid-free archive boxes. Some lever-arch files contained section separators made of plastic or plasticised paper; in these cases, each section has been removed and placed in individual acid-free archival folders, maintaining the original order.

Description compiled by Rosemary Boyns, consultant archivist, with funding from the donor, and with reference to Militiamen and Sappers by Graham Watson (published 1996). Description completed May 2021 and amended December 2023 to include the items returned from the Durham County Record Office.

Documents to which there is open access may usually be copied, but permission should first be obtained from the museum trustees or honorary curator.

The papers when received were well-organised and labelled but included a considerable number of obvious duplicates. These have been removed and destroyed. A number of other duplicates, more difficult to assess without detailed examination, have been left.

Three items related to the activities of the Regiment rather than Colonel George; these have been added to the Regimental archive at RMRE/21/6, RMRE/26/21 and RMRE/28/9

Some papers had originally been part of the 'Lumsdaine' collection (DLums), the research papers of A A M Lumsdaine, a civilian working with the Regiment from the 1950s to the early 1970s. These papers had been passed to Colonel George, who in his role as museum trustee was working to identify and secure the return of material given by Lumsdaine to other repositories without permission; they were relevant to this work as they contained information on records Lumsdaine had found in Great Castle House. The papers have now been reunited with the Lumsdaine collection and catalogued as DLums/5.

A small number of papers relating to Lieutenant Colonel E D Smeedon clearly formed a separate unit. These have been catalogued as DP46.

The papers were kept by Colonel George, and apart from the four items noted below were donated by him to the Castle and Regimental Museum in March 2021. They were given the accession number D690.

Four items were sent to the Durham County Record Office in error along with Colonel George's material relating to the Durham Light Infantry. These items, given the accession numbers 10122/6,10122/7, 10122/14 and 10122/15 by the Durham County Record Office, were returned to the Regimental Museum in November 2022. Item 10122/15 was found to be an exact duplicate of DGEO/6/7 and was therefore destroyed.

No accruals expected

Colonel George was also a trustee of the Regimental and Chattels Charity of the former Durham Light Infantry, and carried out research into the history of this regiment. Papers relating to this work have been donated to the Durham County Record Office.

The collection includes copies of the deeds, minutes and other official records relating to several trusts. The originals are held by the relevant trusts.

The historical research material in the collection includes a considerable number of copies of documents from the National Archives and other record offices. It has not been possible within the time available to identify the origin of all these copies.