REMEMBRANCE TRANSFORMED: AN INTERVIEW WITH SENIOR CURATOR PAUL CORNISH ABOUT THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM'S NEW FIRST WORLD WAR GALLERIES

摘要

Such was the pervasiveness of the impact of the First World War that in March 1917, when very few could have predicted the war's end twenty months later, Britain's War Cabinet approved a proposal by Sir Alfred Mond MP for the creation of a national war museum to record the events and experiences of the British Empire at war. In all, more than 9 million men from the British Empire fought during the Great War in Europe and around the world; of these, over 900,000 were killed and 2 million wounded. The war had also seen the fighting fronts merge with the home front for the first time, as society was galvanised in support of what became total war: 750,000 British men rushed to volunteer for Kitchener's new army within the first eight weeks; in 1916, mass conscription was introduced in the UK for the first time; industry was turned over to the war effort; women were drafted in to fulfil roles that were previously the preserve of men; and Britain came under direct attack, from both the sea and the air, by a foreign power for the first time since William of Orange had landed on the southern coast of England in 1688 - and he had been invited by Parliament, which then stood in opposition to King James Ⅱ.