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[raflaunches]

As part of my work Force development program my Squadron visited the IWM in London. Never been before, in fact had a few firsts on this trip- first trip on the tube, first visit to Piccadilly, Leicester Square, and Covent Garden! The holocaust exhibition was incredibly upsetting whilst the highlight was the LRDG 30cwt truck. And of course I had to see the 15 inch gun barrels outside.

[skierdive]

It is a great museum and should be on everyone's "to visit list"
The only down side to my visit was in the holocaust exhibition. I had to decide whether to go into the exhibition or not as I knew how upsetting it would be. After some time thinking about it, I decided to go in. Upon entering, I was followed in by two young men who were maybe in their twenties. As soon as they got inside, they decide to start gaming about, giggling and laughing and taking selfies with their phones. They completely ruined the air of quiet contemplation in the exhibition. The only thing I could think of to do was walk back out the way I'd gone in and give them a few minutes to make their way further around before I went in again. Luckily, when I did go back in, they had indeed moved further on around the exhibition and I had no further interruptions.

[raflaunches]

Yes I completely agree, it’s something that has to be done with respect. I didn’t take any pictures of that area for that reason.
I think what I found slightly bemusing was the new area about modern conflict considering that I have been involved in one way or another with military ops over the last 20 years. You don’t often think what you do day to day for two decades becomes history and put on display in a museum.

[Colin Bishop]

A pity that most of the wonderful naval models have ended up in storage at Chatham though.

Colin

[philk]

Most of the models at Chatham are available to view if arranged in advance

[Colin Bishop]

Most of the models at Chatham are available to view if arranged in advance

Yes, OK if you are researching a particular ship, but a really poor alternative to wandering around the galleries enjoying all the models. I used to love visiting the IWM, Science Museum and Chatham simply to look at all the superb models.

There is simply no substitute for looking at a 3 dimensional model to get a feeling for what the original really looked like. Paintings and photos don't come close. Before the shipping gallery closed, I paid a special visit to the Science Museum to photograph the anchor arrangments on models. I now have 40 photos of just about every anchoring arrangement there is which has come in hugely useful for my modelling. You just can't do that anymore.

I have model photos from several different museums including the wonderful collection in the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth and I use them constantly as a reference source for all sorts of purposes.

The change in policy has been a terrible loss really.

Colin