National Heritage Memorials Fund
The National Heritage Memorial Fund: 30 years of saving the UK's treasure
2010 marks the 30th anniversary of the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF).
Over the last three decades the Fund has safeguarded over 1200 iconic heritage treasures for the nation including The Flying Scotsman, Henry the VIII’s flagship Mary Rose, Turner’s The Blue Rigi and most recently the Staffordshire Hoard.
Set up in 1980, NHMF provides grants to help acquire the UK's most precious heritage at risk of loss as a permanent memorial to those who have given their lives in service to the country. Over the last 30 years it has awarded just over £298.3 million to help build and protect an outstanding national collection ranging from historic houses, monuments and works of art to industrial and maritime heritage and iconic landscapes.
NHMF and the National Maritime Museum
The National Maritime Museum has benefited greatly from NHMF assistance over the past 30 years. To date the Museum has received 18 NHMF grants worth a total of over £1.3m which have enabled the acquisition of many important objects and collections. These include:
- Captain James Cook by William Hodges (oil painting)
- Letter from Captain Cook to Lord Sandwich
- Papers of Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich (1625–72); naval and political papers of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718–92)
- Two bound volumes of watercolours by Captain Edward Columbine
Princess Elizabeth, later the ‘Winter Queen’ of Bohemia, aged 7, by Robert Peake (c.1551–1619) (oil painting)- The arrival of the Elector Palatine at Flushing, 29 April 1613, by Adam Willaerts (1577–1664) (oil painting)
- Greenwich Palace from the north-east with a man-of-war, Netherlandish school (oil painting)
- On board the yacht ‘Alarm’, by Nicolas Matthew Condy (1818–51) (oil painting) and ‘The King’s Cup’ yachting trophy won by the yacht ‘Alarm’, 21 August 1830
Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s silk sledge flag, sledging goggles, green canvas satchel, and waterproof 34-hour pocket watch taken on the 1901 ‘Discovery’ expedition- Liquid lifeboat compass, part of the equipment of the 1914–16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton
- The Earl Beatty Collection, including Statuette of a silver lion rampant; Badge and star of the Royal Victorian Order, 1st class, awarded to Admiral of the Fleet, Earl David Beatty, GCB, in 1917; Brass tompion of HMS Lion 1910; City of London presentation sword; and Freedom Caskets from the cities of Birmingham, Oxford, Hull, Bristol, Manchester and Edinburgh.