The world’s largest collection of Victoria Crosses will no longer be on public display in London after the Imperial War Museum announced plans to close the exhibition. The Lord Ashcroft Gallery, a collection of around 200 Victoria Crosses and a smaller number of George Crosses, were loaned to the gallery by the billionaire businessman in 2015.
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But the gallery will be closed from June, the museum has announced, to make way for more exhibitions on more recent conflicts. The 78-year-old told the Telegraph newspaper: “Each year, a new generation of young people and their parents has visited the Lord Ashcroft Gallery and marvelled at the exploits of the brave men and women whose courage has protected our freedom.
“It makes me sad indeed to think that this remarkable record will now not be available to the public and will instead be hidden away in a secure vault.”. The museum said it would be displaying its own collection of medals across its sites and that they would be “integrated within galleries that tell the full story of the conflicts in which of these acts of bravery occurred”.
The new space will then be given over to exploring the past 80 years of post-Second World War conflict, “including the Cold War, Falklands War and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”. A spokesperson said: “Like all museums, we regularly update our galleries to ensure we can share as much of the 33 million items in our collection as possible with the public.
“We are very proud to have displayed the Lord Ashcroft Medal Collection at IWM London since 2010, made possible thanks to a generous 15-year loan by Lord Ashcroft. “IWM London has proudly displayed Victoria Crosses and George Crosses since 1968, and we remain committed to sharing these stories of the greatest acts of bravery and sacrifice in defence of our nation with the public.”.
The Victoria Cross (VC) or George Cross (GC) are the highest recognitions of bravery that can be given by Britain. The Victoria Cross is Britain's highest military award for bravery in the presence of the enemy, and the George Cross the equivalent award for gallantry not in the presence of an enemy.
