A military museum to remember sacrifices made in war

In the run up to Remembrance Day, we talk to the archivist who set up a museum to ensure the sacrifices of war are not forgotten.

Ian Inglis was nine years old when he received his first military artefact – World War Two medals inherited from his late father. Little did he know that these medals would spark an interest in military history that would lead to the creation of the largest collection of military memorabilia in Scotland.

Now, in a crowded building on the grounds of the Scottish War Blinded centre in West Lothian, Ian presides over the award-winning Military Museum Scotland with its vast and varied collection of artefacts dating from the Battle of Waterloo era all the way through to more recent times.

Still in storage, because of a lack of space, Ian also has more than 15,000 military books, periodicals and letters which form the country’s biggest military library. Together the collections form Scotland’s biggest military research archive.

Ian, who served in the Royal Artillery like his father and grandfather before him, and was also in the Territorial Army for 18 years, is now a connoisseur of military items, having dedicated many hours to collecting and investing in his collection.

“I started with collecting pieces, then investing in bits and pieces. I would go to car boot sales and to jumble sales and pick up anything that caught my eye. I’d see cap badges and medals. A lot of time, people don’t realise what they’ve got. It’s not just about the value but an interest in military history,” he says.

“After my Dad died I wanted to find out more about what he did during the war. As a child I read a lot of books. My main topic of interest was World War Two and World War One, but some of the stuff I’ve got goes back to the Waterloo era.”

In the early days, Ian’s collection filled storage boxes, spare rooms, attics and garages of his own home and those of generous friends. At that stage his collecting was a but it was slowly taking over his life, as well as his home. “It just snowballed,” he says.

Eventually Ian realised he had to do something with his collection, so he set up the Mobile Military Museum which he took around schools from Inverness to Essex teaching pupils about military history through his artefacts.

After ten successful years on the road, Ian decided his mobile museum needed a permanent home, and in May 2016, thanks to the Scottish War Blinded, he found one in a building on their grounds which had lain empty for years.

With a budget of just £280 Ian, and a band of willing volunteers, set about creating the Military Museum Scotland and filling it with items from his collection. It was opened in March 2017 by the Lord Lieutenant of West Lothian, Isobel Brydie.

Initially Ian saw the museum as an education resource for primary schools, but as news spread about the wide range of military artefacts on display, visitors began to stream in from all over the UK and further afield. Ian has welcomed visitors from New Zealand, the US, China and Japan. It also became a gathering place for veterans. “It is a safe, familiar place for these guys. There is squaddie banter that they don’t get elsewhere,” says Ian.

Now the museum is very much a veterans’ hub with the Military Museum Scotland Armed Forces and Veterans Breakfast Club, a Veterans Drop-in, coffee mornings, a veterans’ shed and Combat Curry Nights held on the premises. “There’s also the Friday Club which was set up in winter a couple of years ago to help older veterans deal with the cost of living crisis,” Ian says. “Every Friday veterans meet in the museum for breakfast, then stay for a soup lunch, then go home happy and smiling. The banter in the museum every Friday is fantastic and also well received by other visitors to the museum. The club just goes from strength to strength.”

Meanwhile, Ian’s collection continues to grow. “I have rescued so many bits and pieces from skips. And I will never refuse anything with a military background. Every piece is a part of someone’s personal story. If I don’t take it, it will be lost forever.”

Most of the items on show in 75 display cabinets, and in storage, are catalogued by Ian and his volunteer team. He starts by photographing every item and currently has about 30,000 photographs. He is only half way through cataloguing his huge library.

Outside in the grounds is an authentic World War One trench, dug by Ian over the course of a month during lockdown, a Communications Shack, featuring radio kit through the years, and a tented field hospital, complete with model patients.   

Ian is keen to point out that the museum, a registered charity which is open seven days a week, is 100% self-funded, and run entirely by volunteers, himself included. He does the job for love, not money. The museum receives donations and raises funds by charging an entry fee and through fundraising initiatives such as triathlons and the Kiltwalk.

The next stage in Ian’s master plan is expand into larger premises to establish a formal veterans’ hub, with a veterans’ village, and a Western Front experience, with two opposing trench systems and no man’s land in the middle. To help with funding, Ian would make the site available to film companies and for corporate events.

“It’s a huge and daunting plan,” he says. “However no-one thought the earlier phases would succeed, and they did. It will be a place for people to learn about military history. I am still learning about it myself. We must always remember the sacrifices that were made, and that is what Military Museum Scotland aims to do.

A round up of Remembrance Day events taking place around Scotland can be found on the Legion Scotland website here