Her Royal Highness talks to a volunteer in RAMM's 'Making History' Gallery. Picture By Jim Wileman.

A Royal Visit
In September RAMM was honoured by a visit from Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal, to mark the museum’s 150th anniversary.
The Princess Royal was given a tour of the museum. She was guided by David Fursdon Esq, Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Devon, and Camilla Hampshire, Museum Manager.
Her Royal Highness’ tour of the museum
During the visit, museum staff, partners and volunteers highlighted recent projects. This included innovative work with the Universities of Exeter and Reading on the Exeter: A Place in Time project. The Princess Royal learnt about the discovery, acquisition and conservation of the Seaton Down Hoard (a Roman coin hoard, one of the largest ever found in Britain) meeting the detectorist who discovered the hoard and a representative from Clinton Devon Estates, the landowner.
The Princess Royal visited the museum’s World Cultures gallery and its newly-refurbished Africa displays. She was treated to some traditional mbira music from Zimbabwe. She then moved on to see the museum’s statue of Ganesh. The statue has recently been re-displayed with the input of Exeter’s Hindu community.
Finally, she visited the museum’s new First World War exhibition, Home Front Stories and met some of the local researchers, before unveiling a plaque to commemorate the visit.
Guests of the event
A small group of twenty-two guests joined RAMM staff and volunteers for the unveiling of the plaque. Guests were also treated to a performance of “Home to a million thoughts”, a specially-composed song by Show of Hands front-man Steve Knightley, who is also a patron of the museum.
“It was a great honour to welcome Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal to Exeter on the occasion of RAMM’s 150th anniversary. Exeter has a rich cultural history but, importantly, it also has an immensely exciting cultural future. What better place is there to celebrate this than at RAMM?” – The Lord Mayor of Exeter, Councillor Rob Hannaford