This document outlines a project by the Imperial War Museums (IWM) called "Whose Remembrance" which aimed to highlight the involvement of peoples from the former British Empire in World War I and II. The project brought together historians, academics, community representatives and museum professionals. It included workshops to discuss how to better represent this neglected history in museums and make relevant collections more accessible. The research highlighted stories of colonial soldiers and civilians and their contributions to the wars. It provided lessons for other cultural institutions on collaborating with communities and representing diverse narratives.

1. Whose Remembrance?
Highlighting the involvement of the peoples of the
former British Empire in the two world wars
October 2014
Emily Peirson-Webber
Research Manager, Imperial War Museums
EPeirson-Webber@iwm.org.uk
Anna Maguire
AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award Student , Imperial War Museums
and King's College, London
Amaguire@iwm.org.uk

2. Introduction: a neglected history

3. A wounded man being carried across
a river on an improvised stretcher
during the fighting in German East
Africa.
IWM Q 57601

4. Indian troops marching through
Baghdad, March 1917.
IWM Q 24196

5. Principle objectives:
• To engage with community groups
• To build on work already underway at IWM, to consolidate,
expand and disseminate knowledge and understanding of this
history and relevant collections, and identify gaps and how they
might be addressed
• To address how visitors from BEM communities can be
increased at IWM’s physical and virtual sites, and how fuller
understanding by these groups with a past history connected to
our subject matter could be developed and sustained.
Whose Remembrance?

6. • IWM Research Department
• Advisory group: academics and specialists
• Three specialist researchers:
o Ansar Ahmed Ullah, Swadhinata Trust
o Arthur Torrington CBE, Windrush Foundation
o Ouleye Ndoye, MA Anthropology student at Oxford
University
Research team and project participants

7. Visitors to Butetown for the opening
of the new Mosque enjoy a meal at
'The Cairo' cafe. Left to right, they
are: Abdul Aziz, from Calcutta, who
runs a cafe in South Shields, Mrs
Aziz and their daughter Joynob, Mrs
Annie Nian, with her son Kenneth
and Azin Ulla, a seaman from
Bengal, 1943.
IWM D15293

9. Indian soldiers mingle with men of the
81st West African Division after the
latter had arrived in India for jungle
training. The first African colonial
troops to fight outside Africa, the 81st
Division went on to Burma in
December 1943.
IWM IND 2864

10. Two workshops were held at IWM London:
• The historians’ workshop addressed the current state of
research into the topic and in particular the availability of sources
that allow the study of the experiences of colonial soldiers and
civilians.
• A workshop for museum professionals, community
representatives and social scientists discussed the
representation of this marginalised topic and the different ways
that museums have sought to explore this history.

11. One day when having a swim [by the Suez Canal], two companies of
troops from Jamaica came down and it looked funny to see these fine
bodied coloured men, for they were as black as coal, in the water with us
chaps, and it wasn’t very long before we were the best of friends. Other
days we would have a picnic as they called it. We would go over to one
of the sweet water canals and lay under the shade of the trees, telling
yarns or playing card till evening time and then we would come back to
camp.
Diary of William Barry, IWM Documents 15006

12. Two members of the South African Native
Labour Corps (SANLC) cleaning mess
tins, Dannes, February 1917.
IWM Q 7833

13. A Maori lumber worker talking to a
Frenchwoman. Forest de Nieppe, March 1917.
© IWM Q 4740

19. “The Whose Remembrance project has been
crucial in filling the gap in history that has
overlooked the contribution of colonial troops in
both world wars. I was privileged to hold an over-
subscribed screening of the documentary at the
House of Commons during Remembrance
month. It attracted individuals of all ages and all
professions, keen to learn more about this
neglected area of history, and to establish ways
of sharing this information.”
Diane Abbott MP

23. • Allowed IWM to reflect on its collections – how they might be
better contextualised, how access to this material might be
better facilitated, how the collections can be used to raise
awareness of the diverse stories IWM can tell.
• Raising profile of this history can encourage donations of
primary source material from families who realise that their
history matters.
• Diaries and letters of those in charge can be ‘mined’ for
incidental observations and insights into contemporary attitudes
to race and difference.
• Collaboration between researchers, museums and archives has
yielded strong outcomes.
Impact of research on IWM Collections

24. • Joint research and digitisation projects between universities,
archives and museums are an important route to showcasing
the latest scholarship carried out by academics and
independent historians.
• Cultural organisations need to forge links with communities and
their ‘brokers’ in order to ensure the narratives they promote are
representative of the communities they serve.
• It can be difficult to fully appreciate difficulties encountered
accessing collections from the ‘outside’ – important to engage
users.
• Making archives and collections more accessible is a challenge
but is not insurmountable!
Lessons applicable to other museums, archives
and cultural organisations

25. • Whose Remembrance webpage:
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections-research/research-
programmes/whose-remembrance
• Researching the British Empire in the First World War resource
guide:
• http://www.iwm.org.uk/sites/default/files/public-
document/Researching_the_British_Empire_resource_guide.pdf
• First World War Centenary Partnership website:
• http://members.1914.org/
Further information