Brighton Museum asks for help with the Great War

Brighton Museum wants help from the public with the First World War.

The museum is looking for stories, photos and mementoes for an exhibition to commemorate the centenary of the start of the Great War next year.

Curators are holding a drop-in day at the museum in Royal Pavilion Gardens, Brighton, on Saturday 21 September from 1pm to 4pm.

They hope that people will come along and share their stories, family histories, pictures and keepsakes that relate to the war and Brighton and Hove.

Anyone unable to make it along to the drop-in session can contact the museum team on 01273 292845.

Councillor Geoffrey Bowden

The exhibition is being organised by the Royal Pavilion and Museums, part of Brighton and Hove City Council, and will form part of the city’s commemorations of the centenary of the war.

Councillor Geoffrey Bowden, chairman of Brighton and Hove City Council’s Economic Development and Culture Committee, said: “We want to tell the story of World War One through the life stories of around a dozen real people caught up in it.

“It could include a Tommy, for example, an officer, a woman working on the home front, and a child growing up in wartime.

“So many people have a family connection with the war and we are interested in hearing their family stories, which have perhaps been passed on by parents, grandparents or great grandparents.

“Personal stories highlighting the impact of the Great War on individuals will help bring history to life for younger generations and we hope people will come along to these sessions to share their family stories, photos or mementoes.”

Other examples of the variety of individual stories which could be featured include a woman in frontline wartime service, a suffragette, a conscientious objector, a war artist or poet.

Likewise, the story of a French, German or Indian soldier treated at the Royal Pavilion when it was used as a military hospital during the war.

The exhibition is due to open at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery next summer and will run until early 2015. The exhibition is part of a European funded Interreg 2Seas project, working with museums in Belgium and France.