Lest We Forget?

The First World War caused casualties on a shocking and unprecedented scale, with the human cost of the war becoming one of its legacies. ‘Lest We Forget?’ provides an understanding of how that cost in lives has directly influenced how we see the ‘Great War’.

From a photograph showing the selection of a body for ‘The Unknown Warrior’ to the original Joey puppet from the National Theatre production of ‘War Horse’, the exhibits in ‘Lest We Forget?’ consider commemoration of the war as a fluid concept, one which spans personal mantelpiece memorials, grassroots community tributes, and state rituals, as well as popular movements and cultural outpourings.

On display are several iconic paintings commissioned by the British government in 1918 from some of the nation’s most prominent war artists intended for a First World War memorial gallery – the Hall of Remembrance – which was never built.