New Exhibition: 'Eltham after the Courtaulds'
As visitors walk through the splendour and opulence of Eltham Palace, few realise this sumptuous setting was the home of the Royal Army Educational Corps (RAEC) for more than 40 years. A new exhibition, ‘Eltham after the Courtaulds’, details the RAEC’s time at Eltham Palace and brings another chapter of the property’s fascinating history to the fore.
The new display includes a presentation of an officer’s bedroom as it would have looked in the 1960s together with exhibition panels and a photograph album which re-tell the story of the RAEC’s time at Eltham Palace. Visitors will get a sense of the contrast between regimented Army life and the beauty and glamour of their surroundings at Eltham Palace.
The RAEC was given Eltham Palace as its new headquarters in 1944, when the lease on the Palace was returned to the Crown by Stephen Courtauld. The property was initially used as a base for preparing the military returning from World War II for civilian life. It was later established as the Institute of Army Education and Headquarters Mess of the RAEC, with the function of coordinating education services for soldiers and their families across the world.
Eltham Palace has long been associated with entertainment and good times, from the banquets in the Great Hall, built by Edward IV, to the sporting entertainment of Henry VIII’s younger years, to the glamorous lifestyle lived by the Courtaulds in their 1930s mansion. Despite its undoubted respect and care for this important historic property, the RAEC officers occasionally succumbed to the party spirit of Eltham as the new exhibition reveals.
English Heritage has commended the RAEC for its careful treatment of the historic interior and exterior of Eltham Palace during its occupation of the property which was far longer than the Courtaulds. The new exhibition marks the joint affection for Eltham Palace shared by these two organisations.
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