Imperial War Museum – World War One Galleries

Authors Own Photo

I’m probably about to commit heresy by saying this out loud, but I’ve never really been a fan of the Imperial War Museum. In the past I’ve only ever really been to visit ‘The Holocaust’ exhibition, first with school and then again some years later, while the only other occasion I remember visiting was when we were younger and my Dad took my brother and I; my brother being a huge military fanatic at that age, forever covering the living room in battle scenes with his toy soldiers.  As such I see it a bit as a ‘blokey’ museum and personally, it wouldn’t really ever be first on my list of museums to revisit. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great institution and a hugely valuable one at that; the loss of its library, artefact collections and testimonies never being one I could comprehend. But personally, I just don’t connect with it; I think the only thing I wish I’d seen but didn’t was the Animals at War exhibition a few years ago, which I had the chance to familiarise myself when creating my radio programme this time last year.

However, that said I did recently revisit the museum to view the refurbished First World War Galleries and found myself pleasantly surprised. Now rather foolishly we did go on the last Saturday of half term and it felt like half the population of London did too – it was extremely busy! And that does impact your experience; it’s not easy to see and read everything and at times you do get pushed along with the crowd whether you like it or not. But given the huge efforts that went in to refurbishing these galleries in time for 2014’s centenary commemorations and the media coverage it received,  I really wanted to go and see for myself how the museum had changed and what shape the new exhibition took.

The first thing I should say is “wow!” I mean every inch of that exhibition has been thought about and considered – accessibility, visitor interaction, engagement, digitisation, visitor comfort…. all the public history buzz words apply in this context. It was an assault on the senses and while it felt a little overwhelming at times, it really was impressive. I particularly like the use of sound and texture; that the surfaces on which glass cases rested were inscribed with quotes and phrases; while walls were pasted with WW1 posters and propaganda; and that full use was made of interactive screens, film footage and first-hand testimony. It meant that even if you couldn’t wade through the people and be right up close to the artefacts on display in the glass cabinets, you always had something to look at or read or engage with. You’d have to try really hard not to interact with something.

A few things really stood out for me however. One was the inclusion of an illustrated children’s books which focused on key areas of WW1. I mean what a topic for a children’s book – it’s not something I would have ever considered would have been produced, and that’s the sort of facts I find particularly interesting.  Another was the interactive game of battleships that people could play in order to see how many cargo ships they could safely get to the front line, replicating the mission many men faced in trying to overcome naval blockades and naval warfare.
I was also impressed by one particular area of the museum where again, one of the benches (if that’s the right word), which sort of shaped the museum, had been designed to look like stacks of newspapers and featured headlines from during the war. They speak for themselves but what an effect design feature, turning something that needs to be there into a display in its own right – highly effective!

The Wall of Bullets

Aspects of the exhibition are also designed to make you feel as though you are in the trenches and the one overriding image I am left with, is that of the machine gun which is placed at a distance, yet pointed towards visitors and coming from it are metals rods, following the trajectory of the bullets that would have been fired from such a gun. Two are layered upon each another and you can see really effectively how destructive these guns would have been and how strategically they were placed. Soldiers really did run into walls of bullets. I’ve never seen anything quite like that in a display and it made it that much more real.

Everything has been thrown at this exhibition to make it the best it can be and you can see that right away. You can see the time and care that has gone into this exhibition and it really is a great one. Military history is not really my thing, and I find WW2 more interesting than WW1, but for those few hours I was really interested in what I was seeing and engaging with. I would definitely probably go back at a quieter time, just to take more of it in. There’s a lot to do in one visit.

I think this is also worth a mention. While there my friend and I also looked at the Curiosities of War exhibition which did exactly what it said on the tin – my friend and I just looked at these artefacts quizzically and then at each other as if to say “What is that?!” It was only a small part of the museum, but if definitely made us stop, think and enquire - all important things for an exhibition to do.

     "A Barrel.... Right ok...."       "Oh I get it, I think, sort of..."

That said, my favourite exhibition visited that day was The Lord Ashcroft Gallery: Extraordinary Heroes, which has on display the personal stories and medals belonging to those, who throughout history, have been awarded the Victoria Cross (VC), for extreme bravery under enemy fire, and the George Cross (GC), which recognises extreme bravery carried out away from battle, both in war and peace. It was a new gallery to the museum in 2010, paid for by a £5 million donation by Lord Ashcroft, KCMG, and now contains the largest collection of VC’s ever assembled, merging Ashcroft’s private collection and those already held by IWM. 

The exhibition is built around the question “How brave are you?” and provokes visitors to consider how they would define the concepts of bravery and heroism; offering some suggestion by dividing the exhibition into seven themes; aggression, boldness, endurance, initiative, leadership, sacrifice and skill.

Lord Ashcroft Gallery

What I really liked about this exhibit was its inclusion of modern techniques to engage visitors of all ages. The medals are displayed alongside narrative but you can learn more by interacting with touch screens, listening to sound clips and watching video montages. There are also graphic magazines you can pick up and read and next to some of the stories there are lever arch stamps which children can use to mark off a card as they follow the trail round. Another simple technique used was placing some of the narrative in boxes, so visitors have to open them to read the text – very simple yet I found myself opening everyone, spurred on by curiosity. I also like the fact they haven’t stuck to using traditional fonts either. In some places it’s jazzed up a bit and that just makes it that bit more quirky and engaging.

The website for the exhibitions describes its objective as being ‘to intrigue, inspire and amaze by re-telling forgotten stories of bravery that show, when faced with extreme situations, some people can do extraordinary things’ (1). And it does just that. I hadn’t expected the exhibition to be as fresh and full of life as it was. Owing to previous visits I don’t associate that sort of experience with the IWM and yet this exhibition still gives that impression after five years. I would have said it was much more recent and it just goes to show that I should ditch any presumptions I have, because the IWM is clearly moving with the times.

There is much more pressure on museums now to cater for its modern visitors and we demand so much more. I’m as guilty of it as the next person, I want to be engaged and to an extent, entertained. That is how I learn best - through interaction and I was plenty surprised at just how well the IWM did those things on my most recent visit.

It is definitely worth another visit – especially if a slice of cake’s in the equation!

(1)    http://archive.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/184/about.html

Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust

I first heard about The Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust when I attended Egham Museum’s Identity and Collection Conference earlier this year. I was intrigued to hear from the curator about this new museum and a few weeks ago I finally got around to visiting. Here are my reflections on that visit.

Photo taken by author.

The first thing that struck me, with my public historian ‘hat’ firmly on, were issues of accessibility to the site. As a ‘brown sign’ destination there was a significant lack of signage on the main roads and it was only because I’d read the small print on the website about needing to follow signs for the new residential development, that I eventually found my way. The fact the site is located on this new development is also somewhat hindering, for to gain access to the site you must first appease the curiosity of the security guard and hope he opens the gates to you. I wonder whether this will be a permanent fixture once construction is complete, my hope would be however that this is only temporary and eventually people may come and go as they please.

The Priory itself, plays on the idea of ‘sense of place’ rather than on the presentation of ‘historic items’. The history evoked is tied up in the building rather than the items on display and as such, it has a very ‘new’ feel to it. In most rooms items are sparsely displayed, and where there are higher concentrations, this idea of it feeling new and fresh is very prominent.

Photo taken by author.

The first room that you enter establishes the main historical narrative for Bentley Priory and presents its history as the Headquarters of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain. I really liked the strong chronological flow that was presented in this room and established a base line of information on which the following rooms would build. There were however, surprisingly few authentic items on display that relate to the history of the RAF and the building; rather the sense of history comes from the information and the ‘place’ itself.

That said, there were four desks in the room, each of which presented information on a specific period of the history of the RAF and memorabilia could be found in each of the desk draws to illustrate this. For example in some draws there were model planes to give visitors a sense of what was being flown at this time. These draws could be opened and closed by visitors, encouraging a higher level of engagement. This was enhanced by the oral testimonies that could be heard when you picked up one of the telephones found on each of desks. It encouraged the use of another of the visitors senses – the only thing that would have made this better, was if it had been in first hand and not the voice of actors. With such a detached sense of the history, first-hand accounts could have gone someway to rectifying this.

Photo taken by author.

The next room which we encountered was simply fantastic! I have never experienced anything like it and quite simply, I was blown away. Each visitor is invited into the Film Room by the wonderful volunteers and once inside you watch an 8 minute (or thereabouts) film on the history of Bentley Priory. This has been done to the highest standard and was a wonderful thing to watch. The film begins and you feel as though you’re in a small private film screening, until gradually the screen becomes more transparent and reveals a room behind the screen in which the story of Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding is played out. I was made to jump on several occasions as a door opened and I expected someone to suddenly appear, but thankfully they have restrained from introducing any actors and have created what can be described as a wonderful tribute.



Photo taken by author.

Photo taken by author.

The Medal/Dome Room which followed was another assault on the senses and was much more in keeping what you would expect of a classic ‘museum’. The room centres on a vast collection of medals donated to the museum by one of its patrons and it gives a very personal touch to the museum. The touch screens which are located around the room also present the history of all those in Bomber Command and for the first time you see the human faces of those involved in the conflict. It’s very emotive and to read the stories of individuals was very moving. I was also surprised to find on display the Dickin Medal presented to Rip the dog – you just can’t escape the presence of animals in history!

Photo taken by author.

The fourth and final room I’d like to pay particular attention to was the Filter Room which was a really interesting construct. The Priory have attempted to recreate the original and offer visitors and idea of what this room would have looked like during the height of war, but it felt oddly new. The timber freshly cut and untreated  - but then as my friend pointed out, this was probably how it was then too, thrown together and built from scratch as the need arose. So it actually works in both senses. It was another very atmospheric room and again incorporated oral testimonies to good effect. They were however quite long excerpts and the museum could do with making sure visitors had somewhere to sit and listen.

Photo taken by author.

What was particularly striking about this room however, was the strong sense of commemoration that is evoked. The room has been recreated to resemble the original filter room and its hectic atmosphere, but rather than use tacky models, a series of bronze (I’m taking a guess) statues that represent the men and women who had once worked in this room have been erected and the parallels to other war memorials are uncanny. These faceless yet poignant figures, really added to the sense of atmosphere I felt as a visitor and in evoking such a sense of commemoration the museum has ensured the efforts of those on the ground during the war are recognised too.

Photo taken by author.

Overall I felt like there was a lack of information around – in some places there was a bit but not in others. Perhaps this is something that will develop over time, after all, the museum is only a year old. It does have a really fresh feel to it however and it seems to be taking a new approach to presenting history. I’d be really interested to go back in a couple of years and see how it’s developed and what direction it’s taken but for now I will remember it as a wonderful memorial to those men and women of bomber command.

Medals: An act of remembrance or better best forgotten?

Medal Index Card of one of my relatives.

Within the National Archive there are over 5 million medal index cards for soldiers and other military personnel who served between 1914 and 1920. This included most British army officers, Indian Army personnel, British Army nurses, Royal Flying Corps personnel, Royal Naval division personnel and some civilians. 5 million cards, issuing any number of the medals issued to those who served in one of the most difficult periods in modern British history. And that is a figure which excludes those many thousands of records for the service men and women from the Second World War.

I started thinking about this topic the other day when I caught a few minutes of one of these day time auction shows and on there, they were selling a collection of WW1 medals. These medals had no connection to the person who was selling them and it got me to thinking what a sad state of affairs that is. These medals represent the courage and sacrifice made by our generation of grandfathers and great grandfathers, and yet here they are, detached from anyone with a personal connection and being sold off to the bidder of the highest price.

Perhaps it’s a rather sentimental view to take, but it is one I find quite difficult to understand. In the year in which we mark the centenary of this life changing event, to think that so many medals have been disregarded and have ended up in auction rooms or antique shops across the country is quite a sad thought. I suppose for me, it’s because we as a family take such pride in the medals earned by my grandfather and great grandfather, and for the last few years they along with a picture of them both (only one in uniform unfortunately) have taken pride of place on my Nan’s living room wall. For me they are part of our family story – the fact my great grandfather is believed to have arrived in Britain because he wanted to fight in the war and his native Sweden being neutral, marking a changing point in the family history. I can’t imagine them being given away or sold and would fight to keep them in the family.

With this in mind,  I got thinking about the fascinating project my fellow MA student Sue has begun, which uses the diaries her granddad kept during WW1 to offer a very personal insight into life during the conflict. The collection of memorabilia also includes medals, postcards and letters all of which are providing her with some wonderful material on which to base blog posts and with which we, as the interested audience, can engage. It is a really thought provoking way to think about one of those periods of history we think of as familiar, by emphasising the personal experience. The diaries were only discovered after his death, which in itself tells us something about what those diaries meant to him, but had they not been kept and treasured by Sue and her family, this valuable record would have been lost. And it's that idea that underpins my whole reason for writing this blog - the idea of giving away or disposing of something so valuable to a family story. Sue's project is a very personal one but it is also a very publically relatable story and I for one am very keen to hear more of William John West Taylor’s story as it unfolds.

Selection of one of my relatives medals.

I’m sure that Sue’s project is driven by a desire to find out more about the stories behind this amazing assortment of material and the people involved, just as it is with many of us who embark on our own similar family history projects. The genealogical revolution has really gripped the nation and there is an inexhaustible desire to know more about our own individual’s family’s past – so what it is that motivates some people to sell medals or memorabilia? Or worse, too throw it away? And what has led to so much of this material being ‘family-less’? I notice this is not just a predicament found in Britain, but remember vividly passing a stall in Rome which was also selling medals and at the time commented, how if I could have afforded too, I would have bought the medal, traced to whom it was awarded and returned it to the family – they are only small items but they represent so much and I think that is all too easily forgotten. However then on the other hand, I think well, if they were appreciated and valued by the family they'd never have been given up in the first place. There are also those  soldiers who actually sold them, so I guess as with everything, there are many different ways to look at this.

What makes this worse, for me anyway, is that some people have seen the commercial value in this and try to exploit the interest some of us have in our family’s past. Not so long ago I was contacted by a medal dealer who had acquired the medals of a distant relative of mine. He’d tracked this relative through Ancestry and seen my relationship to him and contacted me to see if I would be interested in buying these medals from him. I can only assume, others in a similar position were also contacted, but what a thing! I mean not only has he reduced this item to a meaningless commodity, but he was also willing to play on the sentimentality of those of us with an interest in genealogy. Now I know this is a livelihood for some people, but really? In my view these items are invaluable and should be treasured by families as a reminder of the contribution their ancestors made to two of the greatest conflicts in modern history and at such a prominent time in the ceremonies of remembrance we should really be remembering this.

Then again, as a final thought, perhaps those who were awarded the medals want them forgotten? I know in our case, those medals were hidden away in a tin for years, not displayed - perhaps that's what they both would have wanted? It's hard to say really isn't it - but to see them auctioned on the television just seemed disrespectful in some way.

To be taken to Sue’s blog please follow this link - http://fromshacklefordtothesomme.wordpress.com/ and she has also set up a Facebook page which can be found here https://www.facebook.com/shacklefordtothesomme?fref=ts. Do take a look and keep an eye out for updates on this very interesting project as it evolves.