National Army Museum

For the National Army Museum of New Zealand, see National Army Museum (New Zealand).

National Army Museum
The main entrance of the National Army Museum from Royal Hospital Road.
Location within Greater London
Established	1960 (collection); 1971 (building)
Location	Royal Hospital Road, London, SW34HT
Coordinates	51.486111°N 0.16°W / 51.486111; -0.16
Visitors	215,721 (2008, up 7.3%) [1]
Director	Janice Murray
Public transit access	Sloane Square Victoria London Bus routes : 170
Website	Official website

The National Army Museum is the British Army's central museum. It is located in the Chelsea district of central London, England adjacent to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the home of the "Chelsea Pensioners". The National Army Museum is open to the public every day of the year from 10.00am to 5.30pm, except on 24–26 December and 1 January. Admission is free. The museum is a non-departmental public body. The National Army Museum relates the overall history of the British Army, British colonial, imperial and commonwealth forces and the British Indian Army as a whole from 1066 to the present and its effects on national and international history. However, the Museum's displays on the period from 1066 to 1642 are wholly via interpretation rather than objects, since its collecting remit is from the English Civil War onwards. Though the National Army Museum does hold a small number of early objects (such as a bronze saker from the 1530s), acquisitions of pre-1642 military items for the national collection is usually by the Royal Armouries. This remit for the overall history of British land forces contrasts with those of other military museums in the United Kingdom such as Firepower – The Royal Artillery Museum concentrating on the history of individual corps and regiments of the British Army. It also differs from the subject matter of the Imperial War Museum, another national museum in London, which has a wider remit of theme (war experiences of British civilians and military personnel from all three services) but a narrower remit of time (after 1914).

History

File:National army museum logo.jpg

Logo of the National Army Museum

The National Army Museum was first conceived in the late 1950s, and owes its existence to the persistent hard work of Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer, who did most of the fundraising for it. It was established by Royal Charter in 1960, with the intention of collecting, preserving, and exhibiting objects and records relating to the Regular and Auxiliary forces of the British Army and of the Commonwealth, and to encourage research into their history and traditions. It was initially established in 1960 in temporary accommodation at the former No.1 Riding School at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. A new purpose-built building, designed in brutalist style by William Holford & Partners, was started in 1961 on a site which had previously formed part of the old infirmary of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The new building was completed ten years later and opened by the Queen on 11 November 1971.

One director, Ian Robertson, initiated a programme to establish an outpost of the Museum in the garrison town of Catterick, North Yorkshire, to be known as National Army Museum North, on the model of Imperial War Museum's establishment of the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester. A large site was chosen near Marne Barracks, beside the A1, and in 2002 Simon Pierce of Austin-Smith:Lord was chosen as the new museum's architect. However, funding and planning issues later led to the cancellation of the plan in 2003. The National Army Museum instead underwent a major redevelopment of its gallery and corridor displays at Chelsea from 2006 onwards, establishing new displays in existing permanent display areas, converting the corridors from oil-painting displays to permanent-exhibition spaces, and producing new temporary and permanent display areas on the third floor. This redisplay concluded with the opening of the new permanent National Service gallery in October 2010, though a further phase of redevelopment followed from 2011 onwards.

Governance

The National Army Museum achieved devolved status as a non-departmental public body in 1983 under terms of the National Heritage Act. The annual Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of Defence, is administered by the Director of the Museum on behalf of the governing body, the board of trustees of the National Army Museum.

Directors

• Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Bernard Appleby 1971-1975
• John Paris 1975-1982
• William Reid 1982-1988
• Ian Robertson 1988-2003†
• Dr Alan Guy 2003-2010
• Janice Murray 2010-

† = Died in post

Galleries

The National Army Museum's galleries are arranged as follows:

• Main temporary exhibition space (ground floor)
• Making of Britain 1066-1783 (corridor from ground to 1st floor)
• Changing The World 1784-1904 (1st floor)
• World Wars 1905-1945 (corridor from 1st to 2nd floor; 2nd floor)
• National Service 1947-1963 (permanent display - corridor from 2nd to 3rd floor; temporary display - corridor from 3rd to 4th floor)
• Conflicts of Interest (3rd floor)
• Art Gallery (3rd floor)
• The White Space (temporary displays - 3rd floor)

Main temporary exhibition space

The museum's main temporary exhibition space on the ground floor houses displays on a variety of subjects. These have included Helmand: The Soldiers' Story (from August 2007 to August 2009, on soldiers' current experiences in Helmand province during the current conflict in Afghanistan) and War Boy: The Michael Foreman Exhibition (from September 2009 to August 2010, showing original artwork by Michael Foreman on themes from the First and Second World Wars alongside medals won by Foreman's family and objects from the Museum's own collection). The 2010-2011 exhibition in this space was The Road to Kabul: British Armies in Afghanistan, 1838 - 1919 about the First, Second and Third Afghan Wars (as well as a display of watercolours of the current conflict in Afghanistan by Matthew Cook). This was followed from October 2011 to August 2012 by an exhibition entitled War Horse: Fact & Fiction, exploring the Michael Morpurgo novel of that name alongside real-life stories of horses involved in war and the men who depended on them, also drawing on the play and film adaptations of the novel.

Making of Britain 1066-1783

The Museum's Making of Britain 1066-1783 gallery (previously located on the lower ground floor and on the corridor ramp from the lower ground floor to the ground floor) closed on 21 February 2011, as did Money and Might, a corridor gallery between the ground and first floors introducing the Changing the World gallery. These were replaced in May 2011 by a new gallery, again entitled Making of Britain 1066-1783, in the corridor between the ground floor and the first floor.

Changing the World 1784-1904

The Changing the World gallery tells the story of the French Revolutionary Wars, Napoleonic Wars and British involvement in India from 1794 to 1904. It tells the story of the rivalry with other European Imperial powers, the expansion and defence of British trade and political interests, and the creation of the British Empire, including the Indian Mutiny. This gallery is divided into two halves. The first half covers the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, the War of 1812 and the Mysore Wars. Its exhibits include the helmet of Tipu Sultan. This half concludes with the Battle of Waterloo, illustrated by the Siborne model, the skeleton of Marengo and a diorama figure of Charles Ewart capturing a French eagle. The second half begins with a Victorian Soldier Action Zone, a hands-on, interactive area for children, dealing with weapons and conditions of service for soldiers in the Victorian era. It then continues onto the British Army and British Indian Army's involvement in the Crimean War (including exhibits relating to Florence Nightingale and a diorama figure of Mary Seacole), the Indian Mutiny, the Zulu War and the Boer War, among other conflicts of that era. The display then concludes with a display on the Boer War on the corridor between the first and second floors.

Napoleonic Wars

Mary Seacole, Crimean War and Indian Mutiny

Bronze-painted statue to Walter Richard Pocock Hamilton, VC

Zulu War

World Wars 1914-1945

The gallery shows the part played in the First World War and Second World War by the armies of the United Kingdom and her empire and commonwealth. It begins with recruitment for the First World War and ends with a display on the Partition of India. It includes a central area for special exhibitions on the two World Wars, such as Finding the Fallen on the identification of soldiers' remains by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (2005 to 2006) and Faces of Battle on early plastic surgery by Harold Gillies (2007-2008).

Battle of Mons

World War I machine gunners

World War II, 6 pounder anti-tank gun

National Service 1947-1963

The history of National Service in the United Kingdom is displayed in two galleries. The first of these is a permanent gallery dealing with the period (in the corridor between the second and third floors), which opened in October 2010. This is supported by the second gallery, which is a rotating display on different campaigns during the National Service period in the corridor between the third and fourth floors - the campaign currently examined is the Korean War, in a display which opened in March 2010.

Conflicts of Interest

The Museum's third floor display area was previously divided into a gallery on National Service and a gallery on the modern army. This has recently been redeveloped and re-opened as the White Space (a temporary display space for art exhibitions) and the Conflicts of Interest gallery, dealing with the modern army from the Troubles to the present day. The campaigns it examines include the Gulf War, Kosovo the Bosnian War, the Falklands War and the current conflict in Afghanistan. The Conflicts of Interest gallery opened on 12 September 2009 and was long-listed for the Art Fund Prize in 2010.

Art Gallery

The Art Gallery contains military works of international significance.

The National Army museum's permanent Art Gallery houses a large number of the oil paintings in museum's collections from the 16th century to the 20th century, including works by Jan Wyck, John Wootton, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, Benjamin West, Sir Henry Raeburn, Francis Cotes, George Jones, Lady Butler, Richard Caton Woodville, Rex Whistler and John Keane. Those portrayed include Oliver Cromwell, James II, George III, the Marquess of Granby and the Duke of Wellington. It also includes furniture from the museum collection.

Sources

• National Army Museum Account 2009-2010 ("The Account"). http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc1011/hc03/0388/0388.pdf. 

External links

• Official website of the National Army Museum