Alistair Hardaker
Image: Two of the drawings from the collection (Royal Engineers Museum)
Historic WWII technical drawings destroyed after vehicle transporting them to Scotland for digitisation was stolen and set alight in November incident.
More than 1,7000 Second World War-era technical drawings, thought to be worth £500,000, have been lost as they were transported for digitisation.
The Royal Engineers Museum has confirmed the theft and destruction of the drawings and plans from its archive collection.
The materials, which include elements relating to the design and construction of D-Day Mulberry Harbours, railways and bridging, were destroyed when a vehicle transporting them to Scotland for digitisation was stolen and subsequently set on fire.
The museum was notified of the loss on 20th November and has been working with Scottish Police to establish full details of the incident.
Police are appealing for information about the theft. Constable Teri McEwan said: “We’re conducting extensive enquiries into this incident and officers are working their way through CCTV and visiting nearby properties.
“I am now asking anyone with information, or anyone who saw someone acting suspiciously in the area around the time, to get in touch with us.
“If you have private CCTV, doorbell or dash-cam footage, please also review this and bring anything which may assist the investigation to our attention.”
The museum has said it would welcome any information that may assist in finding the perpetrators and would be pleased to recover any items that may have escaped destruction.
In a statement, the museum said Trustees and staff at the Museum were “devastated” by the loss of this part of its archive.
The museum confirmed that no members of the public or company staff were injured in the incident and that it appears to have been a random act of criminality with no connection to the museum or its collection.
Duplicates discovered
Since the loss of the collection in November, the museum has announced it has discovered duplicate technical drawings within its collection. Museum director Rebecca Nash told Advisor it was “still pretty early days regarding the collating and identification of duplicates”, and told BBC News “We can now look at plugging some of the gaps that have been caused by the loss of this material.”
The museum said it continues to work on what remains a significant wartime archive and will redouble efforts to make its Mulberry Harbour collection publicly accessible through exhibitions, its website and research services.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Police Scotland on 101 quoting reference CR/0489211/25 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
