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Somme 90th Anniversary - Visit UK Museums With WWI Exhibits
By Jon Pratty
30/06/2006
Image: a photograph of a large brick-built memorial with white tombstones in the foreground
The Thiepval Memorial lists the names of 72,000 British soldiers - the missing of the Somme. Picture © Gavin Greenwood
The British people had never experienced anything like the Battle of the Somme. In the first few hours of July 1 1916, the British Army suffered the heaviest battlefiled casualties ever inflicted upon it in a single day.
Little wonder, then, that the battle still occupies a central place in the British psyche and 90 years on museums in the UK are still looking at ways of responding and interpreting what was one of worst military disasters of the 20th century.
Today there are hundreds of military museums all over Britain where the sacrifices of a whole generation of young men can be learnt about. Here is a small selection, as well as some excellent websites on the subject.
Image: a photograph of a tank in a museum
Apart from the items from WWI in its main hall, the Imperial War Museum in London has a wealth of exhibits and material relating to the First World War. © 24 Hour Museum
The Imperial War Museum, in London has an excellent display in its basement that allows visitors to experience a First World War trench at night.
The Trench is a full size walk-through diorama that allows visitors to eavesdrop on the conversations of men as they stand on the parapets. With realistic sounds, artefacts and life size mannequins it's one of the best recreations of the scale and the conditions in a First World War trench.
The galleries of the museum also contain an unparalleled collection of arms, uniforms and armour together with diorama models, films and other artefacts. In the museum's main hall there is First World War tank and a trolley bus used to ferry troops to the front.
Image: a photograph of a torn and bloodstained khaki officer's tunic with a diary next to it
A damaged and bloodstained tunic worn by Second Lieutenant Harold Cope of the 7th Battalion, The Border Regiment, wounded during an attack on Delville Wood on 7 August 1916. © IWM
To mark the 90th Anniversary of the Somme the Imperial War Museum has developed an online exhibition.
The Battle of the Somme features key items from the museum’s extensive First World War collection - many of them digitised for the online display. The idea is to allow a wider audience to learn more about the battle, highlighting personal stories from those involved and provide information about the battlefields today.
The IWM also houses the National War Memorial Database, an exhaustive listing of thousands upon thousands of war memorials of all shapes and sizes. The website allows you to search the records of war memorials commemorating all wars located throughout the United Kingdom.
They range from familiar community crosses and statues to less common memorials like bus shelters, sundials, park benches and even an island.
Image: a photograph of a large floral monument with flags erected at its base
This 'floral' temporary cenotaph was erected in Bowling Park, Bradford, shortly after the war. Just one of the images held by the UK Inventory of War Memorials. © UKNIWM.
The museum has some of the best resources on WW1 in digital form: reminiscences from veterans can be listened to and images can be viewed.
Next stop in London is the National Army Museum in Chelsea.
Here you can find out how the armies of the First World War reached stalemate in the trenches on the Western Front; what life was really like for the soldiers who lived in the trenches, and how the war of attrition was finally broken.
Image: a photograph of a shattered landscape
The remains of Delville Wood after fierce fighting in July 1916. © NAM
The National Army Museum 's Somme 90th Anniversary exhibition runs until July 1 2007 and has been planned to mark the anniversary with an exploration of the many ways in which the Somme has been viewed, at the time and since.
It aims to present the facts about the battle: why, and how, it was fought; how the public at home saw the campaign, and what the thousands of British soldiers involved felt and experienced.
You don't have to live in London to see more about the 1914-18 war. Why not go to the Royal Armouries Leeds.
Image: a museum tableau showing a Vickers machine gunner in a gas mask
A First World War Vickers machine gunner. © The Royal Armouries, Leeds
This national museum is the headquarters of the Royal Armouries group of museums, which also include the Tower of London and Fort Nelson at Portsmouth. The upper galleries of the museum in Leeds explore 20th century weaponry and the World War I area includes an impressive display of trench weapons and a tableau of a Vickers machine-gunner.
Further North from Leeds is the Durham Light Infantry Museum & Durham Art Gallery
During the First World War thousands of volunteers from the mines, shipyards, farms, shops, schools, offices and industries of County Durham joined the DLI.
By 1918, the Durhams had raised 43 battalions - like the Durham Pals. 13,000 of these brave men never returned.
The Durham Light Infantry’s medal collection - Local Heroes - is a superb collection of over 3,000 medals awarded to over 1,000 men who served in the regiment. Many of them were awarded during the First World War and the museum's website features a fully searchable database that allows you to discover some of the stories behind them.
Image: shows a wooden cross with an inscription carved into it
Gallant officers are remembered on this cross, usually sited at St Andrew's Church, Bishop Auckland. Courtesy Durham Light Infantry Museum and Durham Art Gallery
To mark the 90th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme the museum has re-united three crosses erected on the bloody battlefield of the Somme in memory of County Durham soldiers who died there.
Together with archival material seldom seen by the public, the exhibition relates personal stories of some of the 130 Durham soldiers who died in the attack the crosses commemorate. Read the 24 Hour Museum News Story about the Durham crosses.
Located in Balhousie Castle, Hay Street, Perth, the Black Watch Regimental Museum is part of the Regimental Headquarters of the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment.)
Image: a photograph of a bible with a bullet hole through it
The prayer book that saved the life of James Grant of the Black Watch when he was struck in the breast by a German bullet. Picture © Black Watch Museum
A display features a recreated trench scene complete with sound effects, a kilt worn in WWI still covered with Flanders mud and the colours of the 6th Battalion who were awarded the Croix de Guerre as a unit in 1918.
25 Black Watch Battalions served in the First World War, with more than 50,000 men passing through the Regiment. 8,000 of them were killed and over 20,000 wounded.
The display also features a replica headstone and silk banners printed with all the names of those killed. There's also a continuous video narrated by WWI Black Watch veteran Gilbert Cross who died in 2004.
Over on Merseyside, The Museum Of Liverpool Life has a poignant collection of objects used by soldiers in World War I on show within a reconstructed trench.
In the Battle Gallery you can read a blood-stained diary; see objects hit by shells and bullets; watch actual footage of the King's Regiment on the Western Front and even hear a soldier describing conditions in the trenches.
Image: a black and white photograph of british soldiers in a trench
In the trenches, from the Battle Gallery, Museum of Liverpool Life.
The Sherwood Foresters Regimental Museum, housed in Nottingham Castle, has displays depicting the history of the Regiment, including the Militia and Territorial Battalions, from the formation of the 45th Regiment in 1741 to the amalgamation with the Worcestershire Regiment in 1970.
Units of the Foresters, including many territorials, were heavily involved in the Battle of the Somme and you can learn more about their experiences on the Sherwood Foresters Museum website
The World War 1 resource box area includes the letters of Lieutenant Valentine Sidney Wood, DCM, who served with the Sherwood Foresters Regiment 1901 - 1910, the Seaforth Highlanders 1916- 1918 and with the Sherwood Foresters 1918 - 1920.
The section also includes a downloadable map showing the attack on July 1 1916 around Gommecourt on the Somme.
The Royal Welch Fusiliers Regimental Museum has five refurbished galleries occupying two towers of Caernarfon Castle - a World Heritage Site.
Seigfried Sassoon's Pistol - on display at the Royal Welch Fusiliers Regimental Museum
It tells the story of Wales' oldest infantry regiment, raised in 1689 and still recruiting in the Principality today.
You can learn how the Regiment won 14 Victoria Crosses and hear the words of famous writers who served with the Royal Welch during the First World War, such as Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, David Jones, Frank Richards and Hedd Wyn.
The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire & Wiltshire Regiment (Salisbury) Museum has a long name and the regiments have an equally long and illustrious history.
Situated in Salisbury's Cathedral Close, the public displays are housed on the ground floor of a grade 2 listed building dating from the 13th Century.
The museum houses the collection and archives of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, the Wiltshire Regiment, the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment and the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire & Wiltshire Regiment (the latter shared with the Soldiers of Gloucestershire museum).
Image: shows a brass tin with a woman's head on it and a bullet hole to the left of the tin
Tobacco tin, a Christmas gift to all soldiers from HRH Princess Mary in 1914. This example, damaged by a German bullet, reputedly saved the life of the owner. © The Wardrobe
The museum's excellent website has more than 2,000 images of collection objects and photographs. The website also has unique searchable transcripts of 13 battalion war diaries from the First World War (over 12,000 records).
Click here to visit the museum's website - oddly titled The Wardrobe, after the museum building.
The Lloyd George Museum & Highgate Cottage, Llanystumdwy, has some items of very special and poignant interest. The museum features caskets and scrolls presented to him as freedom honours, mainly for his work as Prime Minister when he led the country during the First World War.
There are also medals, paintings, photographs and documents, such as the Versailles Treaty, which was signed at the end of the First World War.
The Tank Museum at Bovington, Dorset, has many relics of the trench wars of 1914-18 and holds the biggest cellection of First World War tanks to survive anywhere in the world.
The Museum's Mark V is one of the last First World War tanks to remain in full operating condition and their Mark II actually fought in the Battle of Arras in 1917. You can even get inside the Mark V** which has a fascinating walk-through facility.
Image: a museum interior with part of first world war tank
Get inside the Mark V** At Bovington. Courtesy Bovington Tank Museum
Also in the museum is a dramatic trench display telling a soldier's story - from being recruited into the army, arriving on a railway platform, walking the road to the trenches, walking through a British trench, passing through no mans land and then finally entering a German trench as a tank breaks over the top.
Rural Bedfordshire may seem a long way from the Somme, but the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway was built in 1919 with materials and equipment that were surplus from the light railways which had supplied the trenches during the Great War.
The collection includes an armoured petrol locomotive, on loan from the National Railway Museum, of a type built for WW1 service in France (locally in Bedford), and later used to haul trains at Leighton Buzzard.
Pride of the collection is an American-built Baldwin steam locomotive, built in 1916 for work on the battlefield supply lines, and then used for another 60 years in India. The railway recently launched an appeal for up to £100,000 to put the survivor back into working order.
The railway has established a twinning agreement with the Froissy-Cappy-Dompierre Railway in Picardy. This is the last surviving fragment of the Somme battlefield supply lines, with an excellent museum.
Men of the 10th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment, returning from the trenches. © Imperial War Museum
The Liverpool Scottish Regimental Museum is open to visitors on a limited basis, normally on a Wednesday afternoon/evening (2 pm to 7 pm and later by arrangement) and other times by arrangement.
The collection includes cases containing tunics and weapons from men who served during the First World War as well as war diaries, photographs and other ephemera.
If you can't arrange a visit, the website is also worth a look www.liverpoolscottish.org.uk/ as it includes an exhibition in progress called 'The Trench' exploring trench life during the Great War.
Image: a photograph of a large ornamental tower set within grounds
Erected on the site of the famous advance of the Ulster Division on the 1st July 1916, the Ulster Memorial Tower in Thiepval, France commemorates the officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the 36th (Ulster) Division who laid down their lives in the First World War. Picture © Gavin Greenwood
The Somme Heritage Centre commemorates the involvement of the 36th (Ulster) and 16th (Irish) Divisions in the Battle of the Somme, the 10th (Irish) Division in Gallipoli, Salonika and Palestine and provides displays and information on the entire Irish contribution to the First World War.
With a remit to promote cross-community contact, mutual understanding and an appreciation of cultural diversity the centre is the research HQ of the Somme Association of Northern Ireland.
A flagship project, the centre brings together archives, photographs and audio together and presents then with a dramatic recreations of trenches in the form of the Front Line experience.
Image: a photograph of a woodland with trench lines still visible in it
Delville Wood was the scene of fierce fighting between the South Africans and Germans - many of the dead still lie beneath the earth whilst Delville Wood Cemetery contains 5,493 burials. Almost two-thirds of these are unknown. Picture © Gavin Greenwood
Now a brief look at some of the other websites dedicated to the 1914-18 war.
Tom Morgan's Hellfire Corner web pages are extensive, scholarly and regularly updated. Well worth a visit at www.fylde.demon.co.uk/welcome.htm
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website at www.cwgc.org/ is the first place to visit for many people seeking to trace lost relations who fought for their country.
An exhaustive list of British military museums can be found at www.armymuseums.org.uk/, the website of the Army Museum's Ogilby Trust.
www.oldcontemptible.com/ is a site run by Paul Hinkley, and it 's a splendid and moving tribute to those who gave their lives so long ago.
As part of the National Curriculum for England and Wales, pupils aged 15 and 16 who are studying history have to study the Great War. This site, by staff and children at Tideway School in Newhaven, East Sussex, tells the story of the children's researches into the conflict: www.btinternet.com/~james.fanning/fallenheroes/index.html
www.worldwar1.com/ is another excellent place to study the history of World War One on the web.
Image: a photograph of a stone with Mametz Wood 1916 carved into it and a woodland in the background
Mametz Wood - the 38th (Welsh) Division were cut down attacking the wood in the distance. © Gavin Greenwood
The Western Front Association was formed to further interest in the period 1914-1918. Its principle objective is to perpetuate the memory, courage and comradeship of those, on all sides, who served their country in France and Flanders. It does not seek to glorify war, is entirely non-political and welcomes members of all ages.
There are some excellent and very moving online battlefield tours on the site.
Click here to try out one for the Somme region.
Another excellent website covering the period is Chris Baker's effort: www.1914-1918.net is a scholarly and well researched site with particularly good links to other sites.
The Imperial War Museum have an extensive and emotive website called 'The Fatal Salient' - a view of the First World War through the eyes of an artist - www.iwm.org.uk/online/fww_rem/fww-art.htm
Also on the IWM site is a rare chance to hear the voices of those who served in the First World War.
In Recollections of War you will hear stories from the men and women who experienced the horror of the Great War, both in the trenches and at home in the munitions factories and hospitals.
IWM Collections is an excellent port of call for anyone interested in the First World War and includes an overview of British Service Medals from the war.
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Information published here was believed to be correct at the time it was prepared. Welsh language pages developed with CYMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government.