The Imperial War Museum

The Imperial War Museum in London is one of the vital segments of the British National Museum. Its main purpose has been to produce a record of both civil and military war efforts conducted by Britain and Commonwealth since World War I.

Collection of Imperial War Museum

The Imperial War Museum was founded in 1917 due to the Sir Alfred Mond’s initiative. It was originally located in the Crystal Palace on Sydenham Hill, then it was moved to the Imperial Institute in South Kensington to be finally placed in former Bethlem Royal Hospital in Southwark. The museum houses an impressive collection of war documents and archives of British and Commonwealth army, navy and air force. Among others, as an exhibit, you may find documents of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery or Sir John French. Moreover, it includes memoirs, letters and diaries of regular servicemen and civilians that had played such a significant role in World War I and II. The Museum possesses a vast collection of paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, photography, film and sound. Worth mentioning is the work of an American portrait painter John Singer Sargent, as well as the works of an English writer, painter and critic Percy Wyndham Lewis or an English film director, producer, screenwriter and video artist Steven Rodney McQueen. In April 2014, Time magazine included McQueen in its annual Time 100: „Most influential People in the World”.

The institution  Video Archive contains one of the oldest and historically significant film archive in the world, such as The Battle of the Somme documentary film dated to 1916 and an unedited film shots by British military cameramen, who documented the landings on D-DAY in June of 1944. The museum possesses wide range of objects such as uniforms, insignia, badges, flags including the Canadian Red Ensign from the Battle at Vimy Ridge in 1917, an automatic pistol owned by Winston Churchill, a number of vehicles used by Marshal Montgomery during World War II and even one of the only two intact TSR-2 strike aircrafts. Imperial War Museum Library has collections of technical manuals, biographical material and works on war social, economic, cultural, political, military aspects, as well as, books, magazines, newspapers and other reference material.

The most interesting facts according to Connect-Click:

• In January 1944, the Imperial War Museum was struck by a Luftwaffe bomb, which fell onto the naval gallery. It heavily damaged several ship models and Short Seaplane, which flown in the Battle of Jutland.
• In September 1992, the museum was the target of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Thankfully, two incendiary devices were dismantled preventing any damage.

Address: Lambeth Road, London