In Memoriam: Remembering the Great War

30 September 2008 – 6 September 2009

Press View: Thursday 25 September 2008 10.00am – 1.00pm

To commemorate the ninetieth anniversary of the Armistice, Imperial War Museum London is mounting a major exhibition that will look at the personal stories of those who lived, fought and died during the First World War both overseas and on the home front.

Featuring fascinating and previously unseen material, this exhibition will use the experiences of over 90 individual men, women, servicemen and civilians to illustrate the different aspects and key events of the Great War and its aftermath. Much of the material will be drawn from the Imperial War Museum’s own collections that were established during the First World War.

Among the personal stories and items on display are:
· The watch and ‘King’s Shilling’ given to Edward Packe who enlisted in the Army in August 1914;
· The Victoria Cross awarded to Jack Cornwell who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Jutland and the second youngest recipient of the VC;
· The smashed aircraft windscreen of British flying ace James McCudden who had shot down 57 aircraft by the time of his death in action in 1918;
· The Military Cross awarded to Wilfred Owen that was worn by his mother until her death;
· The paint box and brushes used by Official War Artist John Nash who, with his brother Paul, served on the Western Front;
· The torn tunic worn by Harold Cope who was seriously wounded at the Battle of the Somme;
· The cross that marked the grave of Prime Minister’s son Raymond Asquith;
· The diary kept by Florence Farmborough who was a nurse on the Russian Front;
· An extract of Geoffrey Malins’s film The Battle of the Somme, that was viewed by at least half the population when it was screened in 1916;
· The illustrated album of Herta Dobinger, a 13 year old Austrian, who recorded the experiences of life on the Austrian home front;
· The camisole worn by Margaret Gwyer who survived the sinking of Lusitania;
· A wreath tossed into the car carrying Prime Minister Lloyd George after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
 
To compliment In Memoriam a selection of works from the 1918 Hall of Remembrance scheme will be displayed in the adjoining Singer Sargent Gallery. Created by the British War Memorials Committee of the Ministry of Information, the scheme was designed to commemorate all aspects of the war effort, including the home front. However, the Hall of Remembrance was never completed and the collection of paintings was given to the newly founded Imperial War Museum. Among those paintings on display will be John Singer Sargent’s Gassed (1919), the intended centerpiece of the Hall, Percy Wyndham Lewis’s A Battery Shelled (1919) and Paul Nash’s The Menin Road (1919).

The First World War was the beginning of what Winston Churchill later described as ‘the woe and ruin of the terrible twentieth century’. The Great War was truly a global war, fought not just on the Western Front, but also in Russia, the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa. Casualties were on a scale never seen before. Massive artillery bombardments caused terrible loss of life and destruction. The use of aircraft and submarines in large numbers and the first appearance of tanks on the battlefield brought new dimensions to conflict. When the fighting had finished in November 1918, the First World War had claimed the lives of 21 million people worldwide.

For Britain, supported by its Empire, the war also meant huge social change, with its men conscripted for the first time in history and women taking their places in factories and fields. The First World War still exerts an extraordinary hold upon the public imagination and this exhibition seeks to further our knowledge and understanding of that terrible conflict.

Admission to In Memoriam: Remembering the Great War is free.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a website: www.iwm.org.uk/90

The official book to accompany the Imperial War Museum exhibition In Memoriam: Remembering the Great War will be published by Ebury Press in September 2008. Written by respected historian Robin Cross this lavishly illustrated narrative of the Great War uses letters, diary entries and eyewitness accounts to tell the personal stories of those involved.

For further information contact: Victoria Smith Senior Press Officer, Imperial War Museum London, 020 7416 5497, vsmith@iwm.org.uk www.iwm.org.uk

Notes to Editors:

NINETIETH ANNIVERSARY ACTIVITES AT THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM
The ninetieth anniversary of the Armistice is an important milestone in the Imperial War Museum’s own history as it was founded during the First World War as ‘a lasting memorial of common effort and common sacrifice’ to those who played their part in the conflict in which over 700,000 British servicemen lost their lives.

To mark the ninetieth anniversary of the end of the First World War a series of exhibitions and events to commemorate the experiences of those who lived, fought and died in the ‘war to end all wars’ will take place across each of the Museum’s five branches. For further information about events and activities taking place at Imperial War Museum branches visit www.iwm.org.uk/90 

HORRIBLE HISTORIES™: Frightful First World War is open now at Imperial War Museum North and is based on Frightful First World War, one of the most popular books in the Horrible Histories™ series by Terry Deary and Scholastic Children’s Books.

The Last Post: Remembering The First World War is at the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms from November 2008 and examines wartime correspondence and the important role played by the Royal Mail during the First World War.

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM LONDON
This London branch of the Imperial War Museum houses exhibits ranging from tanks and aircraft to photographs and personal letters; they include film and sound recordings, and some of the twentieth century's best-known paintings. Visitors can explore six floors of exhibitions and displays, including a permanent exhibition dedicated to the holocaust and a changing programme of special temporary exhibitions.  

Imperial War Museum London
Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ
10.00am - 6.00pm
Enquiries 020 7416 5320/5321
www.iwm.org.uk
Press Contact:  Laura McKechan 020 7416 5311 lmckechan@iwm.org.uk 
Victoria Smith 020 7416 5497 vsmith@iwm.org.uk 

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM
The national museum of the experiences of people who have lived, fought and died in conflicts involving Britain and the Commonwealth since 1914.
 
The Imperial War Museum is the museum of everyone’s story: the history of modern war and people’s experience of war and wartime life in Britain and the Commonwealth. It is an educational and historical institution responsible for archives, collections and sites of outstanding national importance.
 
The Museum’s five branches include Imperial War Museum London which houses the award-winning Holocaust exhibition; the Second World War cruiser HMS Belfast; the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, housed in Churchill’s secret headquarters below Whitehall; Imperial War Museum Duxford, a world-renowned aviation and heritage complex, and Imperial War Museum North, one of the most talked-about Museums in the UK.