The Imperial War Museum is a 'must visit'
institution for the family historian. It was
established in 1917 as both a memorial to those
who had died and a centre where the First World
War could be studied and remembered. From the
beginning, it was used by people trying to find
out what had happened to members of their
families, and this function has continued and
increased in recent years. Sarah Paterson of the
Department of Printed Books at the Museum
explains just what is available for researchers.
The twentieth century has been a century
overshadowed by war, that has involved everybody.
Consequently, the scope of the Imperial War
Museum is greater than many people might imagine.
Although it naturally has material relating to
the Armed Forces, there is also considerable
civilian coverage, for instance of the evacuation
of children, women coping with shortages and
danger, the internment of foreigners, munitions
manufacture and conscientious objection. Though
there is a concentration on the British and the
Commonwealth, there is also material about the
opposing forces and about what was happening in
enemy-held countries.
The Imperial War Museum in Lambeth Road
provides changing exhibitions and narrative
displays on the two World Wars. HMS Belfast, a
Second World War Cruiser anchored on the Thames,
is an ideal place to visit for those seeking to
find out about what life was like in the Royal
Navy of this period. Wandering around Duxford, a
former RAF base near Cambridge, will enable you
to find out more about the Royal Air Force, and
you can see vintage aircraft flying at the
regular air shows held in the summer months.
Other Imperial War Museum branches are the
Cabinet War Rooms (Churchill’s wartime
government headquarters in Whitehall), and
Imperial War Museum North.
For some visitors, it may be enough to see
these displays. But if you would like to take
things further there are a number of different
reference departments that are all open to the
public by appointment. These are the Imperial War
Museum Collections, which are based in the Museum
at Lambeth Road or at the All Saints Annexe a few
minutes’ walk away. You can do as much or as
little research as you like, and there is no
charge (except for copies). Staff are unable to
do detailed research for you, but are
knowledgeable and enthusiastic and will be able
to offer advice.
There are seven different Collections: the
Department of Art, Department of Documents,
Department of Exhibits and Firearms, Film and
Video Archive, Photograph Archive, Department of
Printed Books and Sound Archive.
The Department of Printed Books is probably
the best starting point for the family historian.
This is a national reference library with a
variety of materials ranging from song sheets to
trench maps, and greetings cards to knitting
patterns, as well as the books and periodicals
you would expect. Although we have material that
is rare, occasionally unique, one of our great
strengths is that so many publications you
sometimes have to visit several different
libraries to see, are available under one roof.
Reading
Room at the Museum (courtesy of the Imperial War
Museum)
The Department of Printed Books does not have
service records or official documentation - these
are held either at the Public Record Office or
the Ministry of Defence - but can advise on where
to find these, and how to interpret what you find.
The crucial piece of information is to know the
unit(s) that an individual served with - in the
service record, these usually appear as a list of
numbers and abbreviations, and can appear
confusing. The library has the unit histories and
other sources that will enable you to find out
where these units served and what they did. For
those just beginning their research we have
produced a number of family history notes
covering the Army, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy,
Merchant Navy and prisoners of war. We also have
information sheets on tracing American service
personnel and the following women’s
formations in the First World War: the Women’s
Royal Naval Service, Queen Mary’s Army
Auxiliary Corps and Voluntary Aid Detachments.
Booklists may also prove helpful for those
wishing to find out about various subjects
ranging from the Imperial Camel Corps to the
Women’s Land Army. Some of these are
available on the Museum’s website at www.iwm.org.uk
or copies can be requested directly from the
department.
Publications
The Department also has a flourishing
publications programme. A complete catalogue is
available on request, or can be downloaded from
the Museum’s website. There are four titles
currently available in the Tracing Your Family
History series: Army, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy
and Merchant Navy. These sell for £5.50 each,
and have been produced in response to frequently
asked questions. They aim to help those who are
confused about the complicated structure,
language and abbreviations of the Armed Forces,
and as well as providing information, they
include useful reading lists and addresses. The
next books in the series will relate to the
different women’s formations, to tie in with
the Women in Uniform exhibition that will be held
in Autumn 2003.
Debt of Honour
The Internet has revolutionised family history
research. The Museum’s website provides more
information about the different branches of the
Museum as well as online exhibitions and links.
There are many sites that enable you to appeal
for information or to make contact with comrades
who may have served with the person you are
researching. Ironically it is those who died who
are easiest to trace and the launch of the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Debt of
Honour database in November 1998 has had a
tremendous impact on our enquiries. All the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission registers
available on open shelves in our reading room,
and these can also be helpful for the maps and
plans they provide, as well as enabling you to
see exactly who from the same unit died on the
same day.
Part
of the war diary for the Royal Berkshire Regiment
at the Battle of Albert in 1916 (WO 95/1850)
courtesy of the Public Record Office. Although
war diaries are not held at the Imperial War
Museum, more detailed accounts can often be found
there in regimental, divisional and campaign
histories as well as other sources.
‘Soldiers died in the Great War, 1914-19’,
originally published in 80 volumes in 1921 with a
separate listing for officers, and an official
roll of honour for the Second World War Army dead
(never published in conventional form) are now
available in CD ROM form, and have made
researching casualties much easier. These are
available for consultation in our catalogue room.
Rolls of honour are one of the library’s
great strengths. These are listings of those who
died, and sometimes those who served as well. The
amount of information varies - sometimes only
brief details are given, but some publications
include potted biographies as well as photographs.
Most regiments and towns or villages produced
these, but the range of listings varies from
commercial organisations - banks and railway
companies being especially well represented - to
Scottish clans, churches and scout groups. There
are many rolls of honour from public schools and
universities, although these tend to concentrate
on officers. There are listings for British
residents of Chile who fought in the First World
War and the British Community in the Argentine
Republic who fought in the Second. ‘The
National Roll of the Great War’, a
publication produced in the early 1920s, lists
those who served as well as those who died, and
is frequently requested by those researching
family members. Although the museum has all 14
volumes known to have been produced, it appears
to have been published on a subscription basis,
and only a very tiny fraction of possible names
are included. The growth in war memorial indexes
and transcripts and in family history as a
leisure interest has resulted in new publications
of this type being produced, and we are always
keen to acquire these to add to the collection.
War Memorials project
Some of you may have contributed to the United
Kingdom National Inventory of War Memorials
project. This is attempting to list and record
the condition of all war memorials in the country.
Although initially it was decided not to record
the names listed on all these memorials (because
this would have been too enormous an undertaking)
there are hopes that this will happen - and much
supplementary information is already available in
the Inventory office. [The Berkshire Family
History Society has produced an index of names
and memorials in the county]. The Museum
database, containing over 45,000 memorials, was
launched last November and can be consulted in
our Reading Room.
The library contains regimental, ship and
squadron histories, official histories, campaign
histories and autobiographies. These are not just
British, but relate to most nationalities. The
Commonwealth holdings are especially strong; for
example, we have a complete run of the ‘Indian
Army List’ for the years between 1914 and
1947, a nominal roll for most of the original
units of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and a
microfiche listing of members of the Australian
Imperial Force in the First World War (including
dates of death or repatriation to Australia).
Although this is now also available on the
Australian War Memorial website, it is useful to
be able to consult this and the many Australian
regimental histories we have.
One of the outstanding holdings of the
Department of Printed Books is the journals
collection. Although large numbers of national
newspapers were destroyed by fire, there are many
titles that will give you an excellent feel of
what it was like to be in a particular place at a
particular time. Regimental journals can be
brilliant sources of information, especially if
you are tracing a regular soldier. These feature
births, marriages and deaths columns, and often
contain details of postings and promotions. You
will be able to chart movements from one location
to another, including details of the journey, the
state of the barracks, exercises and local events.
If your ancestor was a keen sportsman or
interested in amateur dramatics, he may be
mentioned in the battalion sports or
entertainment reports. Holdings of ‘The
China Dragon: the Chronicle of the Royal
Berkshire Regiment’ run from 1907 to 1914
when publication ceased, from 1919 to April 1921
(runs of some journals ceased during the inter-war
period as the remit of the Imperial War Museum
was only to cover the First World War - coverage
was extended on the outbreak of the Second World
War), and then from December 1940 to 1959.
Visitors can conduct research in our Reading
Room, which is located in the dome of the
building. This was formerly the chapel of the
Royal Bethlem Mental Hospital, more popularly
known as ‘Bedlam’, and the Ten
Commandants still grace the walls. Access
involves a twisting staircase, and it is not
ideal for those who have difficulty climbing
stairs, though alternative accommodation can be
arranged as long as prior notice is given. The
Departments of Printed Books and Documents share
the reading room and it is possible to consult
both collections at the same time. Documents
consist of personal papers, such as letters or
diaries as well as retrospective unpublished
memoirs, and these are invaluable for personal
insight into different campaigns or situations.
The department also has important materials for
family historians in listings such as the Changi
Civilian Internment Camp Register or the Milag
Nord Register (a prison camp for merchant seamen
at Westertimke in Germany).
All departments at the Museum are continually
acquiring new items and it is therefore worth
revisiting. There is a wide variety of material
available at the Museum, some of it unique, but
all of it easily accessible to everybody free of
charge. All you need do is make an appointment,
and contact numbers are given below. The Imperial
War Museum offers itself as ‘part of your
family’s history’ and holds a wide
range of material that will provide a clear
insight into the nature of personal experience in
wartime.
Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road,
London SE1 6HZ
Open daily: 10.00am-6.00pm. Tel: 020 7416 5320
Fax: 020 7416 5374 Email: mail@iwm.org.uk;
website www.iwm.org.uk
Imperial War Museum Collections
Department of Printed Books
Reading Room is open by appointment Monday-Friday:
10.00am5.00pm (and most Saturdays between the
same hours, although this is a limited service).
Tel: 020 7416 5342 Fax: 020 7416 5374 Email: books@iwm.org.uk
Department of Documents
Reading Room is open by appointment Monday-Friday:
10.00am5.00pm (and most Saturdays between the
same hours, although this is a limited service).
Tel: 020 7416 5222 Fax: 020 7416 5374 Email: docs@iwm.org.uk
Department of Art
Reading Room is open by appointment Monday-Friday:
10.00am5.00pm. Tel: 020 7416 5211 Fax: 020 7416
5409 Email: art@iwm.org.uk
Department of Exhibits and Firearms
Visitors’ Room open by appointment Monday-Friday:
10.00am5.00pm. Tel: 020 7416 5272 Fax: 020 7416
5374 Email: exfire@iwm.org.uk
Film and Video Archive
Visitors’ Room open by appointment Monday-Friday:
10.00am5.00pm. Tel: 020 7416 5291 Fax: 020 7416
5299 Email: film@iwm.org.uk
Photograph Archive
Visitors’ Room open by appointment Monday-Friday:
10.00am5.00pm. Tel: 020 7416 5333 Fax: 020 7416
5355 Email: photos@iwm.org.uk
Sound Archive
Visitors’ Room open by appointment Monday-Friday:
10.00am5.00pm. Tel: 020 7416 5363 Fax: 020 7416
5379 Email: sound@iwm.org.uk
with any queries
