Herbert Woodend M.B.E. was a long-time friend, confidante & mentor of so many serious arms enthusiasts, authors and researchers. Curator custodian at the Royal Small Arms Factory Pattern Room since the 1970s, he authored 'British Rifles', a 1981 H.M.S.O. publication. 'Herb' or 'Bert' as he was more commonly known, was originally Irish, living in West Cheshunt, north London, and occasional visitor to the U.S.A. His work will make his name and memory live forever in the hearts and minds of serious researchers and collectors.

PLEASE KEEP UP THE WORK ON DONATIONS... Treatment was successful in extending his life for a year and enabling so many good friends to visit with him and witness another side of a modern icon in small arms study.
The fund to assist pay his huge medical bills is ongoing, something like $200,000, still in need of your assistance. Herb had no health insurance cover in the U.S., so we ask you to send donations, no matter how small, to...
John P. Wallace/HERB FUND, 1296 Worthington Lane, Greenville, NC 27858
(please make check out to John P. Wallace/HERB FUND)  wallacej@geeksnet.com 
or Engel Ballistic Research, Inc. (Whit and Karen Engel)  ATTN: Herb Woodend Fund
544A Alum Creek Road, Smithville, Texas 78957  (please make check out to HERB WOODEND)
or contact Dolf Goldsmith / Greg Souchik at Mg34@mg34.com  
In England, European collectors can make donations via Richard and Molly Milner. Send to: National Westminster Bank Sort Code- 60.21.21 Account number- 53501306 Account name- The Woodend Cancer Fund

And from Bob Adams in Albuquerque...                                                      e-mail to:  herb@adamsguns.com
Herb Woodend was custodian of the British Ministry of Defense Pattern Room - first at Enfield Lock and later in Nottingham. Just after retiring, Herb was stricken with colon cancer. After botched surgery (socialized medicine), he was basically told to go home to die! A longtime Crown employee, awarded 'The Order of the British Empire', they were unable (unwilling?) to do any more. Herb sold many possessions and went to the Anderson Clinic in Houston. 
However, Herb had to pay his own medical bills (near $200,000). Herb was a good friend to shooters and collectors around the world. Many firearm books credit his contributions. A confidant of many authors over the last generation, his experience made a significant difference to the record we have today of British (any many other) service arms and ammunition. We request your prayers and any contributions to help meet medical expenses.
Bob Adams

              

Herb outside his office at the Enfield R.S.A.F. Pattern Room in 1977

Royal Small Arms Factory Pattern Room, Enfield, 1977

Royal Small Arms Factory Pattern Room, Enfield, 1977

R.S.A.F. Pattern Room car park, Enfield, northern London, in 1977

Enfield Lock, the barge canal by which the R.S.A.F. got its name

Herb in an untypical off-guard moment sorting government paperwork

Herb and firearms dealer Jeremy Tenniswood ponder a trade for some more goodies for the Pattern Room collection, 1980 at R.S.A.F. Enfield

Don't delay in helping us meet his medical expenses in Houston, Texas.  ALL monies go directly to meet Herb's costs, the smallest contribution will help to pay the large medical bills.                                                 

And from Ian Skennerton...
My first work with 'Herb' was in Spring 1977 when I visited the R.S.A.F. Pattern Room at Enfield on the northern outskirts of London, in the course of researching .577 Snider and .450 Martini-Henry arms. 

An introductory meeting with Herb at my 'digs' (rented room) at Wanstead London's east end, was to make an appointment and go through the required channels to visit the Pattern Room. 

In those days it was not easy to organise a visit. As a newly arrived visitor from 'Down Under' with few established contacts in the system, it was a rather intrepid encounter on my part. It was only through mutual collector friends that the meeting was arranged.

As you can well imagine, this mecca for all British firearms and edged weapons collectors was high on the 'must see' list for such visitors to the Misty Isles. As a repository for service and in-house Ministry of Defence arms for evaluation, it was not easy for casual visitors to visit. The Pattern Room then was used more by the Enfield Factory and British and NATO armed forces as a library of guns from all over the world. After all, this was where the sealed patterns were housed.

The key to real knowledge is a good library of original records and Herb set about to assemble, with old factory and War Office records as a base, relevant printed and hand-written records of the Royal Small Arms Factory and relevant institutions. This inevitably expanded into the best collection of records and service manuals in Britain. Because Herb knew what he was looking for. Similarly his avid pursuit for rifles, carbines, bayonets and swords for the Pattern Room collection became almost an obsession.

The Pattern Room was moved up to Nottingham when the new owner of the Royal Ordnance Factory, British Aerospace, saw the value of the huge land holding of R.S.A.F. Enfield and sold off the land for housing estates. 

The move up to Nottingham did not really suit Herb and while he over-nighted in Nottingham, he returned to London each weekend. His arrival back at work on Monday (or even Tuesday) largely depended upon the amount of traffic on the M1.

Yet again, the factory land at Nottingham was deemed to be of more value as housing estates so the Pattern Room was again under threat. This was after a few apprehensive years when the Ministry of Defence and factory organization argued over who was liable to pay rental of the Pattern Room buildings, and the Pattern Room was likely to be closed.  

This was finally decided when the factory at Nottingham was closed as the Pattern Room collection, one of the finest in the world, was in double jeopardy. There were talks of prize pieces being given to other museums and the bulk of it being destroyed. Given the firearms record of the sitting Labor British government, we were all prepared for the worst anyway. 

Then as prayers were answered, it was officially announced that a new purpose-built building would be established in the Leeds docklands adjacent to the Royal Armouries to house the Pattern Room collection. The Pattern Room reference library has already been moved to the Royal Armouries and is now available to researchers again.

The new establishment remains closed to the general public, but qualified students and collectors may still be granted access to the Pattern Room collection for morning or afternoon sessions. The old days when we could take down prized sealed patterns and experimental prototypes off the rack to examine and study are gone for most of us, but the pristine collection has at least been saved from dispersion or destruction.

Only time will tell if any of the initial restrictions to access are relaxed to permit a wider audience, although we have noted some Pattern Room items on general display in the Royal Armouries galleries.

Certainly, the most comprehensive British military inventory in the world is largely due to decades of tireless work and devotion to the collection of arms and records by one man, the custodian and curator, Herbert Woodend MBE.

Bestowed with one of the highest civilian awards that Great Britain offers, Member of the British Empire, it was recognition for his contribution to this superb collection of British service firearms and edged weapons. Herb was humble enough not to tell most of us of his MBE! Or maybe it was in part due to his dogged Irish ancestry? 

Thank-you to those who donated to Herb's medical expenses and granted him more time with family and friends in his final years. The new 'Lee-Enfield' book (Ian Skennerton) also carries a dedication to Herbert Woodend on the title page.