5 Questions With: IWM’s Senior Curator of Second World War & Mid-Twentieth Century Conflict

What’s your favourite “behind the scenes” moment that visitors never get to see? 

In the Second World War curatorial team, many of our new acquisitions come from the children of Second World War veterans. The moment they hand over objects that are so tangibly related to their loved ones, with such strong personal significance to them, can often be a very powerful and emotional moment. Equally powerful is the trust and responsibility you are given as a curator, to preserve the memory of their parents and tell their stories.

What’s the best piece of advice you wish someone had given you when you started your career?

Be persistent and don’t give up, if this is the career you really want to pursue. After finishing my MA in Museum Studies, it took me four years and dozens of job applications and interviews before finally landing my dream job at the IWM. I was close to giving up and finding a job that didn’t interest me just to pay the bills, but I’m glad I stuck with it in the end.

If you had a “day in the life” reality show about your job, what would be the most exciting episode?

Probably the time I was sent to Salt Lake City, Utah, to meet the family of an American fighter pilot who served at Duxford during the Second World War. Shortly after my arrival, I not only got to see up close all of the incredible memorabilia relating to when he had to bail out over Normandy and subsequently evade capture by the Germans, but within a few hours I was thrust in front of two local media camera crews to talk about the significance of the collection, and then watched myself on TV the next day. It was pretty surreal!

I was close to giving up and finding a job that didn’t interest me just to pay the bills, but I’m glad I stuck with it in the end.

What’s the most surprising connection you’ve made between seemingly unrelated objects in a collection?

At IWM London in the Second World War Gallery we have on display some objects associated with Pilot Officer Frederick Harrold, who was tragically shot down and killed during the Battle of Britain at the age of 23. In 2020, I acquired the collection of another pilot who, like Harrold, had also been shot down but bailed out and survived. When looking through the log book I was surprised to see that he had been on a training flight with Harrold not long before Harrold was killed, which surprised me given that around 3,000 aircrew served in the Battle of Britain. What’s even more coincidental is that the battle-damaged jackets of both pilots survived and eventually made their way into our collection, which present a though-provoking contrast on how a few split seconds of aerial combat could change two lives so drastically, through two quite simple objects.

What’s the most surprising part of your work that visitors don’t see?

Definitely the variety of cool stuff we get to do! While a big part of a curator’s role at the IWM is developing the museums’ collections through acquisition and cataloguing, we also get to develop exhibitions, write scripts for and feature in YouTube videos, write books and articles, give talks, lectures and tours, and occasionally appear on BBC Breakfast!