13 August 2013 — New Left Project

The brainchild behind the Imperial War Museum, Sir Alfred Mond, said on its launch in June 1920: ‘The Museum was not conceived as a monument of military glory, but rather as a record of toil and sacrifice.’ Though he dedicated it to ‘the people of the Empire, as a record of their toil and sacrifice through these fateful years’, the Museum’s Board of Trustees was filled with British government appointees and a handful of representatives from colonial and dominion  governments. The ‘people’, whether of the Empire or Britain, had no say in how their toil and sacrifice was depicted. Continue reading →