The best military history events, lectures, and exhibitions.
Exhibition:
FIRST WORLD WAR LIVES
Using items from the Caird Library, and work created by the students of the Royal Hospital School in collaboration with Rozanne Hawksley, this display will explore the lives of First World War sailors and how they are remembered today.
Details:
Throughout December 2014
National Maritime Museum Park Row, Greenwich London, SE10 9NF
www.rmg.co.uk
020 8858 4422
FREE ENTRY
Exhibition:
THE ARTISTS RIFLES: FROM PRE-RAPHAELITES TO PASSCHENDAELE
Inspired by the story of prominent artist Paul Nash, who gave up painting and enlisted in the Artists Rifles during WWI, this exhibition introduces a volunteer regiment that was founded in 1860 under the threat of French invasion. Its early membership was a who’s-who of the Victorian art world: Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Millais, Leighton, and Holman Hunt. Through the artists’ works, memorabilia, and fascinating history, meet the Artists Rifles and learn their incredible untold story.
Details:
1-27 December 2014 Gosport Discovery Centre, Gosport, Hampshire, PO12 1BT
www3.hants.gov.uk
020 8205 2266
FREE ENTRY
Tour:
FIRST WORLD WAR ARCHIVE VIEWING
The RAF museum is giving members of the public the chance to peruse its extensive WWI archive. This activity, which will highlight Christmas during the con ict, is part of the museum’s rolling calendar of events to commemorate the First World War. Its archive team will be on hand to answer questions about the First World War or any of the letters, photographs, memoirs, log-books, and manuals on display.
Details:
6-7 December 2014
RAF Museum London, Grahame Park Way, London, NW9 5LL
www.rafmuseum.org.uk
020 8205 2266
FREE ENTRY
Family Event:
PREPARING FOR A MEDIEVAL CHRISTMAS
Experience a 14th-century Christmas. Travel back in time with Sir John Savile’s Household as they prepare for the Christmas festivities with costume, music, food, and traditional crafts.
Details:
6-7 December 2014
Brockhampton Estate, Herefordshire, WR6 5TB
www.historic-uk.com
01885 488099
£6.50 ENTRY
Tour:
A CLOSER LOOK: FROM STREET TO TRENCH
Find out what life was like in the North West of England during the First World War, in this 20-minute tour of the special exhibition ‘From Street to Trench: a war that shaped a region’. Read the diary of a Bolton man who survived a Zeppelin raid over the town in 1916, and take a closer look at the painting of a Manchester munitions factory by war artist Anna Airy.
Details:
Throughout December 2014
IWM North, Trafford Wharf Road, Manchester, M17 1TZ
0161 836 4000
www.iwm.org.uk
FREE ENTRY
Exhibition:
THE GREAT WAR IN COMICS
Marking the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, Abbot Hall Art Gallery and the Lakes International Comic Art Festival are bringing together for the first time the work of three internationally acclaimed artists who have shed new light on this conflict through the medium of comic art.
Details:
1-6 December 2014
Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria, LA9 5AL
01539 722464
www.abbothall.org.uk
£6.35 ENTRY
Film Night:
A NIGHT AT THE CINEMA 1914
This special compilation from the British Film Institute recreates the glorious mix of comedies, dramas, travelogues, and newsreels that would have formed a typical night out in 1914. The selection includes a comic short about a face-pulling competition, a sensational episode of The Perils of Pauline, scenes of Allied troops celebrating Christmas at the Front, and an early sighting of one of cinema’s greatest icons.
Details:
10 December 2014
Discovery Museum, Blandford Square, Tyne and Wear, NE1 4JA
0191 232 6789
www.twmuseums.org.uk
PRICE DEPENDENT ON CINEMA
DATES TO REMEMBER:
6 DECEMBER:
Truth and Memory
IWM London, Lambeth Road, London, SE1 6HZ
www.iwm.org.uk
A free hour-long tour around ‘Truth and Memory: British art of the First World War’, the largest exhibition of British First World War Art for nearly 100 years. A museum staff member will be on hand to highlight key pieces and themes within the exhibition while discussing the impact that these works had on future generations.
11 DECEMBER:
December Attack on Passchendaele
Army & Navy Club, 38-39 Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 5JN
www.nam.ac.uk
This lecture examines the course of events from the mid-November decision to sanction further offensive activity in the vicinity of Passchendaele village to the barren operational outcome that forced British GHQ to halt the attack within ten
hours of Zero.
13 DECEMBER:
‘The singing will never be done’
Landmark Arts Centre, Ferry Road, Teddington, TW11 9NN
www.landmarkartscentre.org
A concert commemorating the First World War Centenary, including works by Scarlatti, Vaughan Williams, and Farrington. There will be settings of poetry and prose by Sassoon and Whitman reflecting on war, grief, and remembrance. The orchestra is the Brandenburg Sinfonia. Iain Farrington will play piano, and Christopher Herrick will conduct.
To see this article as it appeared in issue 51 of Military History Monthly, click here.
