The National Army Museum's Archive and Library are full of personal stories. Captured in letters, diaries, memoirs and oral histories, these narratives provide valuable insights into the experiences of soldiers and the history of the Army.
On 30 March 2017 the new National Army Museum will open to the public with its first temporary exhibition, War Paint: Brushes with Conflict. Over 130 paintings and objects explore the complex relationship between war and the men and women who map, record, celebrate and document it.
A hundred years ago today, Second Lieutenant Cyril Edwards became the first officer to undergo and survive a blood transfusion at a front-line hospital after his foot was blown off by a grenade.
Frederick Newman served with the 97th Foot in the 1840s and '50s. Like many Victorian soldiers, he spent most of his military career abroad, enduring various hardships. He met his fate during the first cruel winter of the Crimean War.
In June 1945, the British Army reached its wartime peak of 3.1 million soldiers. Troops were deployed all over the world on military, peacekeeping, administrative and occupational missions.
Fought between 1919 and 1921, this was a guerrilla and sectarian conflict involving Irish republicans, Ulster loyalists and British government forces. It brought about the creation of Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State.
Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer commanded infantry and armoured divisions during the Second World War. He later went on to lead a successful counter-insurgency operation in Malaya.
The voice of Mary Coomer, who served in the ATS during the Second World War, was recently discovered in the National Army Museum's collection of oral history interviews. This is her story, in her own words.
15 May 2023: Today, the National Army Museum installed a large Bofors anti-aircraft gun. The 4-metre x 2-metre gun is on public display for the first time at the Museum’s site in Chelsea, London.
