Image: IWM London
Ashcroft, who donated £5m to establish the gallery, has urged visitors to see the collection before it is returned to him.
Plans for the closure of the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at IWM London have been called ‘sad’ by its namesake Lord Ashcroft, who is now encouraging people to visit the permanent gallery before its closure.
Lord Ashcroft is a British businessman, political donor, and author of books on military history and politics, as well as a collector of Victoria Cross medals.
The Lord Ashcroft Gallery at IWM was created in 2010 following his £5m donation. Ashcroft’s collection of war medals had been given to IWM on a 10-year loan agreement, which was extended by a further five years to 2025.
The museum said in order to prepare for the development of new spaces, the gallery will close permanently from 1 June 2025. The collection is set to be returned to Lord Ashcroft.
The termination of the loan of the collection was first confirmed in July 2024, the museum said, with the exact closure date shared with Lord Ashcroft yesterday.
In response, Lord Ashcroft wrote in a post on X: “Sad for me. I’ve got this from the Imperial War Museums closing the Lord Ashcroft Gallery displaying around 200 VC’s representing the finest deeds of servicemen in UK’s history. Sadly into storage for the time being and my £5m cost to open lost. Please visit before closing…”
Sad for me. I’ve got this from the Imperial War Museums closing the Lord Ashcroft Gallery displaying around 200 VC’s representing the finest deeds of servicemen in UK’s history. Sadly into storage for the time being and my £5m cost to open lost. Please visit before closing… pic.twitter.com/l5DbRd3XuA
— Lord Ashcroft (@LordAshcroft) February 25, 2025
A museum spokesperson told Advisor: “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.
“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.
“Our displays exploring the past 80 years of post-Second World War conflict, including the Cold War, Falklands War and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, are less well represented. Our aim is to address this by creating new gallery spaces on upper floors at IWM London, which will allow us to share more stories of conflicts that are within many of our visitors’ living memory.”
