A RETIRED chief inspector has won a medal for making a museum inside an operational Ministry of Defence base.

Ross Stewart, a former chief inspector at the police base in Wethersfield, became the first man in Europe to win the George Bledsoe Medal for preservation on Thursday July 20.

Ross worked at the base for over 30 years before retiring in 2012.

He helped to design an entire nineroom museum in the old U.S army building, which used to house the U.S soldiers during the war.

Ross said:“The museum started by accident in 2012 three years after I retired.

“Out of the blue, I was approached a woman from the U.S who wanted to bury her husband inside the base after serving here in WW2.

“I held his funeral in the base, and after that British women were approaching me and asking whether they could bury their husbands too.

“And then I realised the impact those American soldiers had on Wethersfield, I wanted to preserve it.

“When the women came for funerals, they gave me things and brought photos and artefacts.

“At first we had a tiny room of memories and paper cuttings, and then it just grew and grew.”

Ross then attracted the attention of U.S military history professor Vernon Williams, who came to the U.K with his students in July last year to arrange the artefacts and conduct more research.

Vernon, who awarded the George Bledsoe Medal to Ross, said: “George Bledsoe served in WW2 as a U.S pilot and encouraged preservation.

“This medal recognises the efforts of Ross to document the history of our two nations working together.”

The museum could open to the public next year.