The Somme ’16

Our next special exhibition will focus on The Battle of the Somme.

2016 marks the 100th anniversary of one of the most infamous battles of the First World War, and we’re currently planning  how to tell The Green Howard story in the context of the wider conflict.

cloth and plan_webWe’ve started by mapping out the key elements we really want to include, and where they will fit in our exhibition space; which will use both our ground floor galleries and feature on the first and second floors.

Our current inspiration might be a little surprising.  It’s not a medal, a weapon or even a photograph.

Just a small piece of khaki cloth sent home by a soldier on the Somme to his mother.  It’s been fringed and frayed and a poem written on one side, with a drawing on the other.

“Dear Mother, this khaki I enclose

Tis but a piece from off my clothes

Treasure it with might and main

I hope we soon shall meet again.

From your loving son, Jack.”

The exhibition will open on Saturday 19 March 2016.