New Collecting Project at Imperial War Museum: can anyone help the IWM

As part of a drive to develop its collections to cover subjects identified as currently underrepresented, the Imperial War Museum is seeking to build up the museum’s collection of material relating to the British experience of the Irish War of Independence.

Alan Wakefield of the IWM has asked if WFA members can assist. He writes:

In the years after the 1918 Armistice, a conflict erupted in Ireland that was fought between Republican insurgents and the forces of the British state. By the summer of 1920, this had descended into a full-scale guerilla war, which was particularly violent in the south-west of the country. By the following spring, over 70,000 regular and irregular British personnel were stationed in Ireland and dozens of people were being killed each week. The conflict finally ended with a truce between the IRA and the Crown forces in July 1921. Over 400 British soldiers and paramilitary personnel had been killed, almost all of whom were veterans of the Great War.

For this project, IWM is collaborating with historian Dr Edward Madigan of Royal Holloway, University of London, and we hope to tap into privately held correspondence, diaries, unpublished memoirs, photographs and related material. The ultimate aim of the project is to enrich public understandings of this pivotal but much overlooked moment in modern British history.

If anyone can assist, please click the link below for more information IWM Project