New Lancaster exhibition to highlight stories of World War 2 soldiers and families

Stories of soldiers from the King’s Own Royal Regiment and those of the families and communities our soldiers left behind, will be told in a new exhibition.

The King's Own Royal Regiment Museum in Lancaster’s City Museum will host an exhibition ‘Hinge of Fate: living through uncertainty in 1942’, to uncover the difficulties of living through wartime.

It will be available to view from September 27 to February 26, 2023.

The exhibition focuses on three themes: Uncertainty, Resilience and Resolution.

As part of the project, there will also be WI (Women's Institute) food tasting and cookery demonstrations, an ENSA (Entertainments National Service Association)-style music event in Market Square, and Light Up Lancaster and Sandylands Primary School will team up to bring light art to the Museum during the popular festival in November.

Robin Ashcroft, chair of the King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum Trust, said the exhibition was "an important step forward" for the museum.

“The Second World War was very much a ‘Citizen’s War’, and we seek to reflect this, by telling not just the regiment’s stories in this pivotal year, but also those of the families and communities our soldiers left behind," said Mr Ashcroft.

“Probably, for the first time since the dark days of the 1940s, we find ourselves living in a time of equal uncertainty and risk and can perhaps more readily relate to the experiences of our forebears as ‘ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”

Councillor Sandra Thornberry, cabinet member with responsibility for Arts, Culture and Leisure, said:  “Our museums play such an important and valuable role in shining a spotlight on our local history.

“This exhibition brings home to us how difficult life must have been during the second world war.  Through exciting displays and events it will bring many individual stories to life which might otherwise be lost.”