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How it started: How it’s going:
Literally how it started on my desk @BritishArmy HQ.
But, kicked off for us by Prof Peter Stone of @BlueShield_Int in the 2013 British Army Review, followed by an Army HQ paper: Delivering a Military Cultural Property Protection Capability.
And, then...
But, kicked off for us by Prof Peter Stone of @BlueShield_Int in the 2013 British Army Review, followed by an Army HQ paper: Delivering a Military Cultural Property Protection Capability.
And, then...
@UKParliament passing the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Act 2017, which ratified the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954) and its two Protocols and...
...the Secretary of State for Defence, who announced that, as part of Parliament’s ratification process, @DefenceHQ would establish a unit of military cultural property protection specialists.
Such a unit had existed before during WW2, then in two forms, in @BritishArmy and in other Allied Armies, as well as a variant in the Office of Strategic Services (forerunner to @CIA).
We regard the MFA&A and the ALIU as our antecedent units.
We regard the MFA&A and the ALIU as our antecedent units.
@DefenceHQ tasked @BritishArmy in 2016 to establish what became, in 2018, the Cultural Property Protection Unit - an all Reserve officer unit with 15 posts. We can overbear by 25% under OP FORTIFY (a Reserve recruiting programme). Recruiting criteria were set:
The Unit is now 50% recruited with the other 50% in the recruiting pipeline, including: heritage building surveyors, paper conservators, a Professor of Geo-Archaeology, heritage consultants, archaeologists...
...a Herald, an illicit cultural property trafficking specialist, heritage architects, a senior collections manager and a church buildings officer.
To train them we developed and ran a pilot CPP Special to Arm course @DSPG_Southwick in 2019. It is now an accredited @BritishArmy course. The next course will be run in Sep ‘21.
CPPU officers wear the Blue Shield of the Hague Convention on their upper left arm as a Formation Recognition Flash - permission was required from @DCMS and authorisation from the Army Dress Committee.
The CPPU is affiliated to the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars and to the Délégation au Patrimonie de l’armée de Terre (DELPAT) - our equivalent unit in @armeedeterre
The Unit has contributed to the review of JSP1325 Human Security, to provide a Defence CPP Policy.
@LWC_UK wrote a CPP Doctrine Note.
There is a CPP page on the Army Knowledge Exchange. A generic CPP brief has been developed for those deploying through @i_mtmc and @MTMCBBN - specific briefs have been written and delivered for OPs NEWCOMBE (Mali) and ELGIN (Balkans).
Looking forward to seeing the Blue Shield being used across the Defence Training Estate to raise awareness and to enhance the delivery of CPP collective training serials. Photo from @armeedeterre
Geospatial data. Fundamental to our ability to deliver CPP is to know what CP is where and to pass this data to those involved in the planning and execution of military operations - @UNESCO CPP Military Manual. We’re working on this by ourselves and with partners like @NATO.
Looking to see if it’s possible to use the three emblems of the Convention as map marking symbols - for awareness and recognition on physical and digital mapping products.
In 2021 we’re looking forward to supporting @3rdUKDivision and @NATO exercises, starting a secondment programme to the @_Carabinieri_ Tutela Patrimonio Culturale, holding a battlefield study in Italy, a training weekend @edinburghcastle and our CPP Special to Arm course.
For me, 2021 will also be the year in which I will hand over the baton to my successor as the Commander of the CPPU - literally too, as I will also hand over Maj Ronald Balfour’s swagger stick ( @KinghamCottages).
As Willy Wonka almost put it...so much time, so little to do.
As Willy Wonka almost put it...so much time, so little to do.
