On 21st October, it was announced by Durham County Council that the DLI Museum, honouring the memory of the Durham Light Infantry, would be closed. Frontman of the campaign challenging this decision, former Police Officer John Stephenson, explains why support to save the museum is needed…

When I heard the announcement from Durham County Council Cabinet regarding the closure of The DLI Museum site at Aykley Heads, I was both shocked and disgusted.

I’m not a serial campaigner. In fact, I’ve never been involved in a campaign in my life, but I knew that I had to do something.

The Council announcement coincides with the 1914-1918 Great War commemorations, and came less than a month before Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day. These are days on which we should be celebrating our Armed Forces and honouring their sacrifice, rather than consigning their memory to history.

To show my disgust over the proposals, I made a post on the DCC Facebook page. It was shared and liked hundreds of times, and many people commented to share their support. This led to my decision to commence an online campaign to challenge the Council.

Within an hour of starting the Save The DLI Museum group on Facebook, we had 80 members. After nine days, we now have over 8,500 members. The total is rising daily, and we have members from all walks of life and all parts of the world. The people care, and have come together to try and save a museum dedicated to one of the finest Infantry Regiments to carry colours.

As General Montgomery once famously said of the Durham’s, “There may be some Regiments as good, but I know of none better.” 

The men of the Regiment were drawn from across the North East, and some even heard the call overseas, returning to join. Those men stood for all of the traditions that we in the North East adhere to: courage, honour, decency, dedication to duty, determination, and staying faithful to each other.

The DLI and North East ethos is summed up succinctly by Thomas Young, DLI VC winner. Regarding the actions that won him Britain’s highest military honour, he said, “I am not much of a speaker. There’s not a man of the Durham’s who wouldn’t have done what I did. It was just what any of them would done if they could. The thing happened to come my way and I did it. That’s all.”

The campaign to save the DLI Museum is gaining traction, but it requires as much public support as we can muster if we want to succeed. If anybody reading this wishes to join the campaign and show their support, or even just wants to learn more about our heritage and the sacrifice that these North East men made to secure it, I encourage to join the group here. 

John Stephenson

In & Around Online would like to voice our own support for the Save The DLI Museum campaign. We’ll be posting regular updates, and we encourage anybody who would like to share their own thoughts regarding the DCC announcement to contact us at online@inandaroundmag.co.uk.