Tribute to Barnes Wallis hit by rift

Kyt · Jul 11, 2008

Shockwaves after tribute to Barnes Wallis hit by rift - Yorkshire Post

IT'S the most famous bomb in the world – the type which the Lancasters of 617 Squadron carried in the legendary Dambusters raid in May 1943.

And for the past 15 years the bouncing bomb has been the centrepiece of a unique, permanent exhibition about the life of its inventor, Barnes Wallis. It opened for the 50th anniversary of the Dambusters raid at the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington, near York.

The exhibition was set up by a Yorkshire-based charity, the Barnes Wallis Memorial Trust, dedicated to honouring the inventor's name and a remarkable career which was influential in changing Britain's fortunes in the Second World War.

But the Yorkshire Air Museum, a separate charity, has decided it no longer wants the Barnes Wallis Memorial Trust (BWMT) on site and the trust is now claiming it is being denied full access to its material. The museum is planning a Barnes Wallis exhibition of its own for next year.

This has outraged the trust, which is taking legal action. It has also upset the children of Barnes Wallis, who think it casts a shadow on their father's memory and his love of Yorkshire.

Mary Stopes-Roe, a daughter of Barnes Wallis and a trustee of the BWMT, claimed: "We would like open access to our own property. It has not been a good experience. It's BWMT property – that's what's making us rather sore. We would like to set up somewhere else in Yorkshire – possibly in Howden."

Mrs Stopes-Roe attended the BWMT's recent annual general meeting in Howden along with the actor Richard Todd (who played Wing Commander Guy Gibson in the celebrated 1955 Dambusters film) and "Johnny" Johnson – Sergeant GL Johnson, the bomb aimer aboard Lancaster AJ-T in the raid who targeted the Sorpe Dam.

At the meeting the 12 trustees voted unanimously to quit the Elvington site, although they have nowhere else to go at the moment and shifting the bouncing bomb poses a problem.

It weighs several tonnes and was originally installed at Elvington by the Royal Logistical Corps as a training exercise.

It was dropped just off the Kent coast at Reculver in 1943 when Barnes Wallis's ingenious weapon – which strictly-speaking is a mine not a bomb – was being tested. It was recovered from the sea bed in the late 1990s and is on loan to the BWMT from the Ministry of Defence.

The trust's chairman, Peter Rix, said: "The Yorkshire Air Museum want to do things their way – not the way this trust wants things to be done. We have to keep control of our own operations. They wanted us to sign a loan agreement so they could do what they wanted with our material. We can't go down that path.

"In the beginning we had a very good relationship. They welcomed us with open arms and there were advantages to both organisations. We didn't charge for our exhibition and they charged no rent. We would have been happy to stay."

The exhibition was in a self-contained area 80 feet by 20 feet at the air museum to which the trust had contributed £2,000.

The bouncing bomb is in a 30 by 10 foot annexe. The exhibition covered all of Barnes Wallis's life – photos of him at school, some of his wood carvings and paintings, pictures and models of his Howden-built R100 airship and items connected with Dambusters raid.

These included the catapult which the inventor used to skip models of the bouncing bombs across a water tank at Teddington and a sighting device used by the Dambusters which told them when to release their weapon as they lined up on the towers of the German dams.

Yorkshire Air Museum director Ian Reed said: "The Barnes Wallis Memorial Trust refused to sign a loan agreement which we are required to do if we have private artefacts on site.

"We have been trying to
negotiate it for eight years so
we had to give them notice to quit.

"We are an accredited museum and we have to do inventories for accreditation purposes.

"We offered to do an inventory for them of their material and they threatened us with legal action. It's very sad. After much discussion we decided enough was enough."

The museum plans to have its own Barnes Wallis exhibition fully open next year.

"We want to tell the full story of Barnes Wallis and what a genius he was," added Mr Reed. "We have put the bouncing bomb on display and insured it. If the Barnes Wallis Memorial Trust want to take it away, it's up to them.

"The story of Barnes Wallis is bigger than one artefact."
Click to expand...

spidge · Jul 11, 2008

It takes two to tango so I suppose we will have to wait for the finale...........sad!

Kitty · Jul 11, 2008

Oh dear, a case of neither side listening to what the other is saying precisely.

Antipodean Andy · Jul 13, 2008

Truly bizarre.

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Tribute to Barnes Wallis hit by rift

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