My favourite places in the world are army museums, which seek to convey the whole breadth of human experience, from fear to courage, hatred to love, victory to defeat.
There are 69 museums in the UK that receive Ministry of Defence (MoD) support for holding and presenting corps or regimental collections on behalf of the army.
Army museums host more than 5 million visitors a year. They excel in reaching the key C1, C2 and D groups, and military museums provide an effective channel for engaging the whole family in cultural activity.
The recent report on the future of army museums presents a forward-thinking view of how the army can address the financial pressures that we see throughout the public sector and attend to the challenge of the passing of the generations who served in the mass armies of the 20th century. British army museums are industry leaders in many areas.
They have attracted more than £15m from the Heritage Lottery Fund in recent years. Support often takes the form of including the museums within the army’s own management infrastructure, which allows the museums to take advantage of the army’s buying power for utilities, self-insurance and maintenance programmes.
Army museums are leaders in public-private partnerships, with private charities operating facilities provided by the MoD on a not-for-profit basis.
A key change is that the MoD will provide museums with grant-in-aid, rather than providing civil service posts. This will reduce MoD costs and provide flexibility for museum trustees.
The most important change is the gradual withdrawal of MoD support to those regiments that have been amalgamated into new organisations. The logic of supporting a regimental museum for 25 years after the regiment itself was disbanded seems reasonable.
Anyone joining a regiment – the family for which they are prepared to die – will have that regiment’s identity preserved for the length of their career. This gives priority to supporting the stories of today’s soldiers and regiments, as missions continue and traditions develop.
Crucially, the MoD continues its responsibility as custodian of the story of the army. It has clearly defined “the army” as today’s organisation, not one from the past.
There are a number of challenges that result from these changes. Army museums are being asked to reshape themselves as the army evolves.
It is a challenge for a network of independent museums to be required to display this level of agility, but one for which the army’s museums are well equipped. In the Army Museums Ogilby Trust, we have a supporting charity that seeks to move best practice through the network and provide support across the sector.
At its last conference, we received encouragement from the National Army Museum, appointing a person to increase collaboration across the network, as well as continue to provide specialist training.
Outside the military network, the challenge for museums is to tell the stories of places and their people. The lives of people who went to war shaped their communities. We are likely to see further development of partnerships between local and military collections.
The onus remains on all of us who work in military heritage to ensure that the experiences of the people we represent are preserved in the best way for the nation, and for generations to come.
Richard Smith is the director of the Tank Museum, Bovington
There are 69 museums in the UK that receive Ministry of Defence (MoD) support for holding and presenting corps or regimental collections on behalf of the army.
Army museums host more than 5 million visitors a year. They excel in reaching the key C1, C2 and D groups, and military museums provide an effective channel for engaging the whole family in cultural activity.
The recent report on the future of army museums presents a forward-thinking view of how the army can address the financial pressures that we see throughout the public sector and attend to the challenge of the passing of the generations who served in the mass armies of the 20th century. British army museums are industry leaders in many areas.
They have attracted more than £15m from the Heritage Lottery Fund in recent years. Support often takes the form of including the museums within the army’s own management infrastructure, which allows the museums to take advantage of the army’s buying power for utilities, self-insurance and maintenance programmes.
Army museums are leaders in public-private partnerships, with private charities operating facilities provided by the MoD on a not-for-profit basis.
A key change is that the MoD will provide museums with grant-in-aid, rather than providing civil service posts. This will reduce MoD costs and provide flexibility for museum trustees.
The most important change is the gradual withdrawal of MoD support to those regiments that have been amalgamated into new organisations. The logic of supporting a regimental museum for 25 years after the regiment itself was disbanded seems reasonable.
Anyone joining a regiment – the family for which they are prepared to die – will have that regiment’s identity preserved for the length of their career. This gives priority to supporting the stories of today’s soldiers and regiments, as missions continue and traditions develop.
Crucially, the MoD continues its responsibility as custodian of the story of the army. It has clearly defined “the army” as today’s organisation, not one from the past.
There are a number of challenges that result from these changes. Army museums are being asked to reshape themselves as the army evolves.
It is a challenge for a network of independent museums to be required to display this level of agility, but one for which the army’s museums are well equipped. In the Army Museums Ogilby Trust, we have a supporting charity that seeks to move best practice through the network and provide support across the sector.
At its last conference, we received encouragement from the National Army Museum, appointing a person to increase collaboration across the network, as well as continue to provide specialist training.
Outside the military network, the challenge for museums is to tell the stories of places and their people. The lives of people who went to war shaped their communities. We are likely to see further development of partnerships between local and military collections.
The onus remains on all of us who work in military heritage to ensure that the experiences of the people we represent are preserved in the best way for the nation, and for generations to come.
Richard Smith is the director of the Tank Museum, Bovington
