*HERITAGE OPEN DAYS 2025 *
Almost a million men of the Royal Artillery served during WW1, and a similar number during WW2, so many people have a Gunner somewhere in their family tree.
Our family history talk will give you:
· Advice on researching the history of individual Gunners, illustrated by some fascinating examples of Royal Artillery soldiers
· Details about the types of records and documents in the Royal Artillery Museum Archive, and a chance to look at some of them
· A chance to put your own questions to our Archivist and one of our expert volunteers
You will also get the opportunity to look at part of our incredible collection of field guns from the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.
The total session will take about two hours, with a one hour talk followed by questions, and then time to view behind the scenes in our main object store.
The Royal Artillery Museum’s collection was established in 1778 for training purposes, and is one of the oldest and most significant of all military collections. It opened to the public in 1820 at the Rotunda on Woolwich Common, moving to the nearby Firepower museum in 2001. Firepower closed in 2016, pending the creation of a new museum near Larkhill, the modern home of the Royal Artillery. That project is ongoing, and for the time being most of the collection remains in various storage locations.
The Royal Artillery Museum’s archive spans almost 300 years of the Royal Regiment’s history and contains hundreds of thousands of historical documents and photographs. This nationally significant collection is both wide-ranging and fascinating, offering a valuable resource for anyone interested in the history of the Gunners, the development of artillery, or the men and women who have served in the Regiment.
This event is wheelchair accessible - please see the FAQs below for more detail.
