The war memorials of the British Museum

British Museum (Bloomsbury) War Memorial, Great Russell Street, London WC1; via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/16595666542

On a pilaster just to the right of the main entrance to the British Museum on Great Russell Street can be found the museum’s war memorial. It is both unobtrusive, in that many thousands of visitors must pass by each day completely unaware of its presence, but it is also a statement of permanence, being inscribed directly into the façade of Sir Robert Smirke’s museum building.

This post will provide some more information on the memorial and the persons commemorated on it, as well as linking the Bloomsbury memorial to the British Museum’s other memorials at South Kensington. It will also explore the contribution of the museum’s staff to the war effort.

The British Museum War Memorial contains the names of eleven former members of the museum staff at the Bloomsbury site that died during the First World War; to these have been added the names of another four that died during the Second.

The inscription on the memorial reads [1]:

TO THE MEMORY OF THE MEN
WHO WENT FROM THIS MUSEUM
AND FOUGHT AND FELL IN THE WAR
1914-1918
IAN A. K. BURNETT . FRANK DERRETT
C. R. DUNT . W. J. EDEN . S. W. LITTLEJOHN
H. MICHIE . JOHN F. T. NASH . E. PULLEN
J. M. SEELY . R. SHEEHY . A. C. STEWART
THEY SHALL GROW NOT OLD
AS WE THAT ARE LEFT GROW OLD.
AGE SHALL NOT WEARY THEM
NOR THE YEARS CONDEMN.
AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN
AND IN THE MORNING
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
[wreath]
1939-1945
PETER ALDERTON
HARRY C. LAMACRAFT
HAROLD R. MILLS
DAVID G. WYE

The memorial was dedicated on the 10th December 1921, the wreath being added in 1923 [2]. The First World War part of the inscription was carved by Eric Gill (1882-1940). He was also responsible for the design of the circular wreath, which was carved by his assistant Joseph Cribb [3]. Gill already had experience of working directly with the fabric of the museum, having carved in 1911 an inscription marking the laying of the foundation stone of the King Edward VII building, the lettering styles for which he had developed from a study of Roman monumental inscriptions in the museum’s collections and elsewhere. Ruth and Joe Cribb have commented that for both inscriptions, “the Museum was able to rely on Gill’s reputation as the most competent letter-cutter of the time, allowing him to cut inscriptions directly onto the building in prominent positions” [4].

Design (by Eric Gill) for the British Museum War Memorial; circular wreath, 1922; yellow, white and black chalk, on grey-brown paper. British Museum No. 1973,0120.24, Asset No. 858065001 (under license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). © The Trustees of the British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/858065001

The memorial also incorporates the most well-known stanza of Laurence Binyon’s poem, “For the Fallen,” now familiar from its widespread use at remembrance ceremonies. Binyon (1869-1943) was himself a member of the museum staff, eventually becoming Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings. The poem had been first published in The Times on the 21 September 1914 [5].

Gaynor Kavanagh notes that the cost of the memorial was “met by subscriptions paid by the museum’s staff, the Trustees contributed to the cost of adding the carved wreath” [6]. The wreath is probably the most prominent part of the memorial today. Older photographs suggest that the inscription may have stood out more before the museum buildings were cleared of soot [7].

British Museum (Bloomsbury) War Memorial, Great Russell Street, London WC1; via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/16570300446

Six of the eleven former employees named on the memorial belonged to the library departments of the museum, who were themselves equally split between the Department of Manuscripts and the Department of Printed Books. During the centenary of the First World War, I tried to find out a little bit more about these six, all of whom are also named on the British Librarians’ memorial that was once placed near the entrance to the British Museum Reading Room, but can now be found near the staff entrance of the British Library at St Pancras [8, 9]. All eleven First World War names on the memorial also feature on the British Museum Roll of Honour in the Great Hall of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. We shall return to the South Kensington memorials later.

The dedication of the Bloomsbury memorial:

The British Museum memorial at Bloomsbury was dedicated on Saturday,10th December 1921. Later that same day, the Pall Mall Gazette published a very short account of the occasion [10]:

EX-SPEAKER ON NATION’S TASK.
WAR MEMORIAL UNVEILED AT BRITISH MUSEUM.
Viscount Ullswater, the ex-Speaker, unveiled a war memorial, which was dedicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury [the Most Reverend Randall Thomas Davidson], at the British Museum today.
The memorial contains the names of fourteen men out of the 138 members of the staff who volunteered for service in the war.
Viscount Ullswater, who was received by Sir Frederick Binyon [sic], director of the British Museum, and a guard of honour of the Artists’ Rifles, said we were still in the midst of great trials, and the end was not yet in sight, but we must bear ourselves as men.
We had got to struggle and work and thus find our own salvation, and not sit down merely in the expectation of blessings to come.

Perhaps due to the haste in publication, the news report confuses the name of the museum’s director, Sir Frederic Kenyon with his more junior colleague, and also miscounts the number of names commemorated on the memorial.

A few days later, The Times also published a short account of the dedication. It formed an addendum to a longer report of a general meeting of the Trustees of the British Museum, which led by recording the museum’s acquisition of an important collection of early Worcester porcelain. The paragraph on the memorial is extremely brief, and makes the same mistake about the number of names on the memorial [11]:

MUSEUM STAFF WAR MEMORIAL.
After the meeting a War Memorial to the members of the staff who fell in the war was unveiled by Lord Ullswater. It is an inscription carved on one of the pilasters at the entrace to the Museum, and contains the names of 14 men who lost their lives. Below is a stanza from the poem, “For the Fallen,” by Mr. Laurence Binyon, Deputy-Keeper of Prints and Drawings.

James Lowther had been created 1st Viscount Ullswater on his retirement as Speaker of the House of Commons in July 1921. Amongst his many other public appointments, he served as a Trustee of the British Museum from 1922 to 1931. The Most Reverend Randall Thomas Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury, was also a Trustee.

The First World War:

I have listed the eleven men named on the memorial here in the order of their date of death and added some details from the database of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and other sources. I have also added links to short accounts of the six former members of the Library Departments that were published via the British Library’s Untold Lives blog during the centenary (some notes on the others have been included in Appendix A):

W. J. Eden — Rifleman 4416 William James Eden, 2nd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, killed in action, 30th October 1914, aged 30 (Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial to the Missing, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium).

C. R. Dunt — Private 4048 Charles Robert Dunt, 1/13th (Kensington) Battalion, London Regiment; killed in action, 1st July 1916 (Hébuterne Military Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France):
https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2016/07/a-museum-clerk-at-the-battle-of-the-somme.html

H. Michie — Sergeant 1390 Harry Michie, “A” Squadron, 1st City of London Yeomanry (Rough Riders); died, 21st July 1916 (Alexandria (Hadra) War Cemetery, Egypt):
https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2016/07/harry-michie-with-the-roughriders-in-the-mediterranean.html

Captain Ian Alistair Kendall Burnett, 3rd Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment, from: University of Aberdeen roll of service in the Great War, 1914-1919 (1921), pp. 61-62; via National Library of Scotland: https://digital.nls.uk/rolls-of-honour/archive/100257036

Ian A. K. Burnett — Captain Ian Alistair Kendall Burnett, 3rd Battalion, attached 8th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment; killed in action, 31 May 1917 (Arras Memorial, Pas-de-Calais, France) [12]:
https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2017/05/ian-alistair-kendall-burnett-bibliographer-and-company-commander.html

Frank Derrett — Private 531869 Frank Derrett, 2/15th Battalion, London Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles); died, 22nd July 1917, aged 34 (Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery, Greece):
https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2017/07/frank-derrett-with-the-cooks-tourists-in-salonika.html

S. W. Littlejohn — Second Lieutenant Stanley William Littlejohn, 142nd Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery; killed in action, 23rd September 1917 (Buffs Road Cemetery, West Flanders, Belgium).

John F. T. Nash — Sergeant 11351 John Frederick Nash, M.M., “B” Company, 11th (Pioneer) Battalion, Hampshire Regiment; killed in action, 23 March 1918, aged 24 (Ste. Emilie Valley Cemetery, Villers-Faucon, Somme, France):
https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2018/03/with-the-hampshire-pioneers-in-the-kaiserschlacht.html

E. Pullen — Rifleman B/202213 Edward Richard Holtun Pullen, 12th Battalion, Rifle Brigade, killed in action, 23rd March 1918, aged 43 (Pozières Memorial, Somme, France)

Captain Alexander Charles Stewart, Army Cyclist Corps, from: University of Edinburgh roll of honour, 1914-1919 (1921), plate lxxvii; via National Library of Scotland: https://digital.nls.uk/rolls-of-honour/archive/100242856

A. C. Stewart — Captain Alexander Charles Stewart, No. 1 Company, IX Corps Cyclist Battalion; killed in action, 12th April 1918 (Outtersteene Communal Cemetery Extension, Bailleul, Nord, France) [13]:
https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2018/04/alexander-charles-stewart-classicist-and-army-cyclist.html

R. Sheehy — Private 408820 Robert Sheehy, 880th Area Employment Company, Labour Corps, previously 2nd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (Service No. 13729), died, 23rd April 1918, aged 41 (Étaples Military Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France).

J. M. Seely — Probably: Guardsman 24712 John Moffatt Seeley, 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, died, 3rd February 1919, aged 41 (St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France).

The Second World War:

The four members of staff that died during the Second World War were probably the following:

Harold R. Mills — Telegraphist Harold Roy Mills (Service Number: P/WRX 1173), Royal Naval Volunteer (Wireless) Reserve, H.M. Trawler Tamarisk; died 12 August 1940, aged 20; awards: Mentioned in Despatches (Portsmouth Naval Memorial, United Kingdom, Panel 45, Column 1); HMT Tamarisk (a trawler converter into a minesweeper) was sunk by German aircraft in the Thames estuary off Margate on the 12 August 1940; CWGC additional information: son of Harold Edward and Lotte Charlotte Mills, of East Finchley, Middlesex.

Harry C. Lamacraft — Flight Sergeant Harry Charles Lamacraft (Service Number: 655914), Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, No 487 (NZ) Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF); died 3 May 1943, aged 32 (Amersfoort (Oud Leusden) General Cemetery, Netherlands, Plot 13, Row 9, Joint grave 175. — concentrated from an original burial site near Ruigoord, Noord-Holland); F/Sgt Lamacraft was the navigator in a Lockheed Ventura aircraft of 487 (NZ) Squadron (then based at RAF Methwold in Norfolk) that was shot down by a German fighter aircraft during a raid on Amsterdam on the 3 May 1943; he is buried together with the other crew: Flight Sergeant Thomas James Baynton, RNZAF (pilot), Flight Sergeant Peter Howard Rowe Davies, RAFVR (wireless operator), and Sergeant Norman Albert Price, RAFVR (air gunner); CWGC additional information: son of Charles Tandy Lamacraft and Fanny Agnes Lamacraft; husband of Ruby May Lamacraft, of Barnet, Hertfordshire. Additional information from the Aviation Safety Network Wikibase: https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/51972

Peter Alderton — Flight Sergeant Peter Henry Alderton (Service Number: 1331632), Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, No 61 Squadron, Royal Air Force; died 13 May 1943 (Amsterdam New Eastern Cemetery, Netherlands, Plot 69, Row C, Coll. Grave 10.); F/Sgt Alderton was pilot of an Avro Lancaster aircraft of 61 Squadron (then based at RAF Syerston in Nottinghamshire) that was shot down by flak near Amsterdam in the course of a raid on Duisburg on the 13 May 1943; he is buried together with the other crew: Sergeant Sydney Lupton, RAF (flight engineer), Sergeant Robert Edward Sloan, RAFVR (navigator), Flying Officer Julian Vernon Orison Wood, RCAF (bomb aimer), Warrant Officer William Joseph Reid, RCAF (wireless operator), Sergeant John Thomas, RAFVR (air gunner), and Sergeant Charles Douglas Whitehall, RAFVR (air gunner). Additional information from the Aviation Safety Network Wikibase: https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/51915

David G. Wye — Lieutenant David Gordon Wye (Service Number: 293210), 1st Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment; died 27 June 1944, aged 28 (Brouay War Cemetery, Calvados, France, I. B. 3.); the 11th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment were redesignated the 1st Battalion at the beginning of 1943; they later transferred to 214th Infantry Brigade (part of the 43rd (Wessex) Division) and landed in Normandy on the 24 June 1944, taking part in the First Battle of the Odon (Operation Epsom) between the 26 and 30 June 1944; CWGC additional information: son of Jesse Middleton Wye and Mary Lucy Wye; husband of Mary Catherine Wye (née Thomson), of Edinburgh.

The Memorials at the Natural History Museum:

The British Museum Roll of Honour

There are two more British Museum war memorials in the Great Hall of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. The Natural History Departments of the British Museum moved from Bloomsbury to South Kensington after the completion of Alfred Waterhouse’s building in 1880, and the new museum remained formally part of the British Museum until 1963.

British Museum Roll of Honour, Natural History Museum, Kensington, London; via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/21390940688

The first memorial to be considered here is the British Museum Roll of Honour [14]. This dates back to the war itself, having been originally fixed in its place on the 27th March 1915 [15].

The self-proclaimed purpose of the Roll of Honour was to highlight members of staff that were, or had been, “absent on duty with the Naval or Military Forces of the Crown.” It takes the form of a wooden board with gilded lettering. There are separate lists for staff working at Bloomsbury and at the Natural History Museum, and the names of employees appear in three columns, which seem to reflect their employment status (or staff grade).

A painted star has been added to twenty-two of the names, marking those that had, “lost their lives in the service of their country.” The evidence of the other museum memorials suggests that there were in fact twenty-four members of staff at both sites that had died as a result of the war: eleven at Bloomsbury, thirteen at South Kensington. Those twenty-four would represent around twelve percent of the 205 staff named on the Roll of Honour.

The British Museum (Natural History) War Memorial

There is another memorial in the Great Hall for the staff of the Natural History Museum, which was at the time of the war known as the British Museum (Natural History) [16]. It consists of a bronze tablet sculpted by Grace Edwards (1874-1965), who worked at the museum as an entomological artist and model maker. The memorial was dedicated by Archbishop Davidson on the 9th July 1921. It commemorates thirteen members of staff from the South Kensington site that died as a result of the war: Edward A. Bateman, Frederick J. Bean, Thomas Douglas, John Gabriel, E. George Gentry, Duncan H. Gotch, Charles Hill, I. J. Frederick Kingsbury, George Pagnoni, John H. Smitheringale, Robert J. Swift, Stanley T. Wells, and F. Gilbert Wiltshear (I have added some notes on these in Appendix B). The museum published a War Memorial Record in 1922, which contains additional information on all thirteen former members of staff named on the memorial, with portraits [17]. This has been supplemented in more recent years by Karolyn Schindler’s detailed diary-style account of the Natural History Museum during the First World War [18, 19].

British Museum Natural History War Memorial, Natural History Museum, Kensington, London; via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/37382410316

The staff of the British Museum in wartime:

At the head of the Bloomsbury list of the British Museum Roll of Honour is the name of Sir Frederic G. Kenyon, K.C.B., who was Director and Principal Librarian of the British Museum for the duration of the war. Kenyon was also an active member of the Territorial Force, an officer in the Inns of Court Regiment. He served briefly in France in 1914, and would later combine his museum directorship with his military duties as a Lieutenant Colonel with the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps.

HU 123488: Lieutenant Colonel F. G. Kenyon KCB, Inns of Court Officer Training Corps. Copyright: © Imperial War Museums. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205302365

The main published source of information on the British Museum during the First World War is a lecture given by Kenyon at the University of Glasgow in 1934. This, sadly, does not deal with the fate of individual members of staff, but it does provide some detail on how the museum and its staff contributed to the war effort [20]:

For several years before the outbreak of war, the Trustees had encouraged members of the staff to join the Territorial Army; and on the declaration of war all those who then belonged to it, together with a few who were members of the Army Reserve, were mobilised and joined their battalions. The Bloomsbury contingent comprised the Director, five Assistants (as the higher grade officers were then called) and twenty-four other members of the staff; that of the Natural History Museum, six Assistants and ten others. Many applications for leave to volunteer were at once received. It was of course necessary to provide for the propert custody of the Museum and the maintenance of its service; but the older members of the staff and those who were physically unfit sufficed for this, and in general it may be said that no obstacle was placed in the way of any volunteer. Before the end of October, 1914, twenty-two additional recruits had been passed for enlistment from Bloomsbury, and fifteen from the Natural History Museum, making a total of eighty-three then serving. By the end of the year the figure had been raised to ninety-three (Bloomsbury 61, Natural History Museum 32).

Kenyon also provided a few reflections on his own military service, in France and elsewhere [21]:

The first member of the staff to cross the sea was, as it happened, the Director. The outbreak of war fortunately coincided with my annual holiday; and when my battalion (the Inns of Court O.T.C.) was invited to send four officers for service with the Expeditionary Force, and I was asked to be one of the four, the invitation was too good to be declined. On Sunday, August 2nd, the battalion went down to Salisbury Plain for its annual camp; but we had hardly settled down into our tents for the night, when, about an hour after ‘lights out,’ a motor-cyclist dashed up with orders to return immediately to town. By 12.30 we were down on the station platform, where we waited for three hours for a train. The usual inexplicable rumours began at once to fly about. One was that a British cruiser had been torpedoed in advance of any declaration of war. Its name was variously given as the Implacable, Indefatigable or Invincible, till someone suggested that the more likely name was H.M.S. Improbable. Eventually we arrived back in London in the small hours of the morning and dispersed. On the 5th, the first day of mobilisation, I was ordered down to Southampton; and on the 9th I crossed to Havre with the Advanced Base of the Expeditionary Force, in the first boat that took any part of that Force across the Channel. It was interesting to think that the last British force that had made that trip from Southampton to Havre was the army of Henry V on its way to the Agincourt campaign, 499 years before to the very day. Then followed a highly interesting month with the Advanced Base, first at Amiens (which we left about twenty-four hours before the arrival of the German cavalry), then at Rouen, and finally at Le Mans. Thence I was recalled on September 9th to take charge of the measures which were thought expedient for the security of the Museum, and returned with the news of the victory of the Marne ringing in my ears, in a boat which carried the first batch of German prisoners.

That did not end my military experiences. Since my battalion was now quartered at Berkhamsted, engaged in the task of training officers for the new armies, the Trustees allowed me to combine military with Museum duty; and for the remainder of the war I was able to serve with my regiment for the greater part of the time, dealing with Museum affairs by correspondence and coming up to town for about a week in each month, and attending every meeting of the Trustees, with occasional visits to France, partly for military training and latterly in connection with the War Graves Department.

In his later history of the British Museum Library, Arundell Esdaile added that it was the Assistant Secretary of the Museum, Alfred Robert Dryhurst, who “carried the extra load of work and responsibility” [22].

Letter from A. R. Dryhurst, Assistant Secretary of the British Museum, requesting an official statement as to the death of Captain Ian Alistair Kendall Burnett, 15 December 1917. Source: WO 339/27462, The National Archives, Kew.

Kenyon’s work for the War Graves Department, later the Imperial War Graves Commission, included a report on the design of the new cemeteries that would be required for the war dead [23].

Kenyon’s 1934 lecture went on to provide some detail on how the British Museum responded to the state’s ever-growing demand for manpower during the war [24]:

As to the staff in general, only a few statistics can be given. In June 1915 a return showed that 118 members of the staff were or had been absent on naval or military service (exclusive of volunteers for home defence) or were lent to other Government Departments. The latter item at this stage only accounted for four persons. By the end of the year the number had risen to approximately 150. In the autimn of that year the “Derby scheme” was put into operation, and Government Departments were asked to encourage their staffs to attest. A return submitted to the Trustees in January 1916 shows how it operated in the Museum. Out of a total male establishment of 570 in the two Museums, 253 were of military age. Of these 152 were serving or had served and been discharged.; 50 had attested under the Derby scheme; 33 had been medically rejected; leaving a balance of 18, some of whom, though of military age, were incapable of service.

During the year 1916 several men were called up under the Derby scheme; but it was impossible to reduce the staff much lower, if the Museum was to continue to be of service to the country, and twenty-six certificates of indispendability were issued, though as men returned from military service the youngest of those hitherto certified were released. An inquiry from the Man-Power Distribution Board in October, foreshadowing an order for the release of all men from eighteen to twenty-five years of age fit for general service still employed in Government Departments, elicited the answer that there were only two men within these age limits stilll employed at Bloomsbury, both of whom had been medically rejected, and three at South Kensington, of whom two had been rejected and one classified C3.

The closing of the exhibition galleries in March […] made it possible to release more of the staff, and twenty more men joined the Army from Bloomsbury and twelve from the Natural History Museum. In addition, fifty members of the Bloomsbury staff and six from South Kensington were lent to other Government Departments; so that by the end of 1916 the strength of the two Museums had been depleted by about 250. As a slight set-off, a few attendants who had reached or passed the age of retirement were retained or recalled for service in the Museum.

In the course of 1917, through the return of disabled and discharged men, the employment of women in the service of the Reading Room, and other devices, seventeen more men were released for military service from Bloomsbury, and two from South Kensington. When the Treasury in May undertook a new survey of the Departments with a fresh and more elastic medical examination, and the Museum was in consequence called upon to supply an additional three men after a given date, it was possible to reply that more than this quota had already enlisted since the date named. The Museum had accordingly no reserve left which could be drawn on to meet the urgent need for fighting men in the early months of 1918. When at  the end of February the Ministry of National Service inquired what number of men would be affected by the proposed withdrawal of exemption certificates from all Civil Servants under twenty-four fit for general service, the answer was that no man of this description was still retained in the Museum. In April the Ministry announced that all Civil Servants up to the age of twenty-five were to be released for military service, and asked that if possible fit men up to thirty-one might be released. The answer was that all fit men up to twenty-five had already been released, and all men classed as A up to thirty-six except one fireman, whose services could not be dispensed with in view of the danger from air raids.

It will be seen from this narrative that the response of the Museum to the needs of the nation in respect of men was prompt and full, and was always well in advance of any official summons. Out of total staff of 384 at Bloomsbury, 137 undertook military or naval service, and 44 were lent to other Departments. The Natural History Museum figures, on a staff of less than half the size, were in the same proportions. In each museum there was one “conscientious objector,” who was allowed to accept what was officially described as “work of national importance.”

Kenyon concluded this part of his lecture with some general comments on those that died [25]:

Naturally the service of the men who joined the fighting forces was not without its toll of casualties. From Bloomsbury ten men were killed or died of disease on active service, and twenty-three were wounded; from South Kensington there were eight killed and fourteen wounded. The names of the Bloomsbury dead are inscribed on the façade of the Museum for perpetual memory, with four lines from the famous poem “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon, himself a member of the Museum staff.

Esdaile’s version of this contains some additional information about the memorial [26]:

Ten of the fighting men were killed or died of disease on active service; their names were carved by Eric Gill under a laurel wreath, not on a tablet, but in the stone of the building itself, a pilaster under the colonnade by the main entrance, and with their names the famous four lines from the poem “For the Fallen” by the late Laurence Binyon, himself a member of the Museum (Print Room) Staff and afterwards Keeper of Prints and Drawings. Below it on Armistice Day in the following years the Staff, with readers and visitors, and sometimes also the Trustees, assembled for the two minutes’ silence.

I am not sure why there is a discrepancy between the casualty figures provided by Kenyon and Esdaile, and the number of names actually carved on the memorial. It seems likely to be related to the contractual status of the staff members concerned.

Kenyon’s 1934 lecture went on to describe the challenges of keeping the museum buildings and collections safe. The threat of air attack meant that many of the more fragile or valuable collection items had to be moved out of the museum’s buildings, e.g. to unused railway tunnels underneath Holborn Post Office, or to the new building of the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. An even bigger threat to the museum than German Zeppelins emerged in 1916, when the newly-established Air Board demanded that it should occupy the museum buildings. With the War Cabinet unsympathetic to the museum’s protests, it took a media campaign to ensure that this proposal was eventually dropped.

References:

[1] Imperial War Museums, War Memorials Register: British Museum War Memorial: https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/59977

[2] Gaynor Kavanagh, Museums and the First World War: a social history (London and New York: Leicester University Press, 1994), p. 60.

[3] Ruth Cribb and Joe Cribb, Eric Gill: lust for letter & line (London: British Museum Press, 2011), p. 25.

[4] Ibid., p. 20.

[5] ‘For the Fallen’: autograph copy of the poem by Robert Laurence Binyon, C.H., made for presentation to the British Museum, 1938; British Library Add MS 45160: https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/manuscript-of-for-the-fallen-by-laurence-binyon

[6] Kavanagh, p. 60.

[7] The War Memorial [photograph], The British Museum Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 2, 1953, front matter; via JSTOR (£): http://www.jstor.org/stable/4422416

[8] Imperial War Museums, War Memorials Register: British Librarians’ Memorial: https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/11063

[9] Lynn Young, “Valete fratres – Librarians and the First World War,” British Library, Untold Lives, 13 November 2011:
https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2011/11/valete-fratres-librarians-and-the-first-world-war.html

[10] Pall Mall Gazette, 10 December 1921, p. 3; via British Newspaper Archive.

[11] The Times, 12 December 1921, p. 7; via The Times Digital Archive.

[12] Mabel Desborough Allardyce, ed., University of Aberdeen Roll of Service in the Great War, 1914-1919 (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1921), pp. 61-62; via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/rollofserviceing1921univ/page/60

[13] University of Edinburgh Roll of Honour, 1914-1919 (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1921), p. 97, plate lxxvii; via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/rollofhonour19141921univ/page/170

[14] Imperial War Museums, War Memorials Register: British Museum Roll of Honour: https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/59977

[15] Karolyn Shindler, A Museum at War: Snapshots of life at the Natural History Museum during World War One (London: Natural History Museum, 2018), p. 44.

[16] Imperial War Museums, War Memorials Register: British Museum (Natural History) War Memorial: https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/12125

[17] British Museum (Natural History), War Memorial Record, 1914-1918 (London: British Museum (Natural History), 1922).

[18] Karolyn Shindler, A Museum at War: Snapshots of life at the Natural History Museum during World War One (London: Natural History Museum, 2018).

[19] Hellen Pethers, “Museum at War: a snapshot of the NHM during WWI,” Blogs from the Natural History Museum, 19 October 2018: https://naturalhistorymuseum.blog/2018/10/19/museum-at-war-a-snapshot-of-the-nhm-during-wwi-library-and-archives/

[20] F. G. Kenyon, The British Museum in War-Time, being the 4th lecture on the David Murray Foundation in the University of Glasgow (Glasgow: Jackson, Wylie and Co., 1934), p. 6.

[21] Ibid., pp. 6-8.

[22] Arundell Esdaile, The British Museum Library: a short history and survey (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1946), p. 161; via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/TheBritishMuseumLibrary/page/n157

[23] Frederic G. Kenyon, War graves: how the cemeteries abroad will be designed: report to the Imperial War Graves Commission (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1918); available via the National Library of Australia: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-52871670

[24] Kenyon, pp. 8-11.

[25] Ibid., p. 11.

[26] Esdaile, p. 161.

Note:

In compiling this post, I have extensively used the genealogical information made available by Findmypast (£): https://www.findmypast.co.uk/

Arras: Part of the East Lancashire Regiment panel of the Arras Memorial to the Missing, featuring the name of Captain I. A. K. Burnett; via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/28439491360

Appendix A: Notes on staff in the non-library departments at Bloomsbury

I have already produced short accounts of the six members of the library departments of the British Museum that died during the war for the British Library’s Untold Lives blog. This appendix will contain some notes on the remaining members of staff commemorated on the British Museum war memorial at Bloomsbury.

W. E. Eden

The first staff casualty of the war from the Bloomsbury site seems to have been Rifleman William James Eden of the 2nd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps (Service No. 4416), who was reported missing on the 31st October 1914, aged 30, and accepted as dead shortly afterwards. The 2nd King’s Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC) served throughout the war as part of 2nd Infantry Brigade in the 1st Division. Rifleman Eden is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.

The reason why Rifleman Eden found his way to the front so early on in the war was because he was a reservist (WO 363, First World War Service Records ‘Burnt Documents’, The National Archives; via Findmypast). William James Eden had enlisted at Barnet in May 1902 for Short Service, during which he served with the 4th Battalion of the KRRC (Short Service meant twelve years’ service, usually three years with the Colours, followed by nine in the Reserve).

William James Eden had been born at Canterbury (Kent) in 1884, the son of William James Eden senior and Elizabeth Jane Eden (née Stevens). The younger William James Eden married Louisa Maffey at a Register Office at St. Marylebone, London on the 18th January 1906, and they had three children. The 1911 Census recorded Eden’s occupation as “duster, British Museum.” At the time of that census, the family were living at 8, Tavistock Square, WC — which would have been extremely convenient for anyone working at the British Museum. Interestingly, William James Eden senior was also an employee of the Museum, successive census returns from 1891 to 1911 giving his occupation there as house labourer, duster, and attendant. In 1901 and 1911, the family of the older William James Eden were recorded living at Colville Place, in the district of London that is now classified as Fiztrovia. Rifleman Eden’s widow married Henry J. Harris in 1917, and the CWCG recorded her living after the war at 19, Canfield Place, Finchley Rd., Hampstead, London NW6. William and Louise’s eldest son, William James Edward Eden, a motor engineer, enlisted in the Royal Tank Corps in October 1926 (Royal Tank Corps Enlistment Records, 1919-1934; via Findmypast).

S. W. Littlejohn

Stanley William Littlejohn was head of the repairing and restoring workshop in the Department of Prints and Drawings. Second Lieutenant Littlejohn was killed-in-action in the Ypres Salient on the 23rd September 1917, while serving with 142nd Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery.

Littlejohn was the subject of an obituary published in the Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs in January 1918 (Vol. 32, no. 178, pp. 16-17, 19). This was written by his colleagues from the British Museum’s Department of Prints and Drawings, Laurence Binyon and Sir Sidney Colvin. Colvin had been keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings since 1884 and was a very well-connected figure in London art and literary life at the turn of the twentieth century.

The obituary plays tribute to Littlejohn’s skill as a restorer, noting the success of his techniques on tempera sketches by Tintoretto and on paintings by William Blake. It also recorded Littlejohn’s success with learning about Japanese and Chinese methods of mounting and repair and his significant work on restoring a collection of silk paintings acquired from Chinese Turkestan. There are also hints at Littlejohn’s character and working practices:

Gifted with an eager curiosity and an extraordinary quickness in picking up knowledge and above all in applying it, he was never content till he had mastered all that he could learn about any trade or business that came in his way. He had an instinctive genius for materials, their nature and capabilities. Pigments and paper; silk; textile fabric of all kinds; precious stones; furs; metals and woods; plants and herbs; — these were all in turn objects of his penetrating study. He had a surprising store of information as to how things were made, and how counterfeited. On the scientific side, though working without any systematic training, he had a working knowledge of chemistry as applied to the study of pigments and materials, acquired through years when he worked as a process-engraver, and was an able mechanician.

Binyon and Colvin considered Littlejohn to be a “uniquely gifted craftsman and valuable public servant.”

Stanley William Littlejohn had been born at Camberwell in 1877, the son of William and Annie Littlejohn. At the time of the 1901 Census, the Littlejohn family were living in Brixton, where both Stanley and his father were working as ‘writing engravers.’ Binyon and Colvin’s obituary adds that William worked for a firm named Layton & Co, and that Stanley served an apprenticeship with the firm before leading “for nearly ten years a life of varied and roving experience, trying many trades, travelling in many parts of the world, and acquiring in the course of his adventures a surprising range of technical insight and practical attainment.” Stanley started working at the British Museum in 1904 and became head of the mounting department in 1908. At the time of the 1911 Census, William’s occupation was given as ‘copper plate engraver,’ while Stanley was described as a ‘Restorer (prints & drawings & paintings) European & Oriental, Civil Servant, British Museum, personal appointment.’

Stanley Littlejohn’s military career and death is covered briefly in the obituary by Binyon and Colvin:

After the outbreak of the great war he was bent with patriotic enthusiasm on serving his country in some active capacity, and early in 1917 obtained a commission in the Royal Engineers, with a view to being employed on special work in which his inventive and mechanical gifts would have scope. After some months of training he was transferred to the R.G.A., and on the eighth day after reaching the front was standing in his battery in conversation with his major when a fragment of a shell exploding close by struck him on the head and killed him instantaneously.

Stanley had married Maud Littlejohn at Kingston-on-Thames (district) in the 2nd quarter of 1917. His bride seems to have been the Maud Emma Littlejohn who was born at Peckham Rye in 1872 or 1873, the daughter of George and Emma Littlejohn. Both Stanley and Maud’s fathers had been born in Scotland, but it is not clear whether the families were related. The 1939 Register records the widowed Maud living at Esher (Wolsey Road) with two brothers, describing her as an artist. She died at East Molesey (Surrey) on the 27th February 1952.

Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Littlejohn

E. Pullen

Perhaps one of the more difficult of the Bloomsbury names to research was that of E. Pullen. It took me quite a long time, but eventually the 1911 Census led me to an Edward Pullen, who was resident with his wife Ellen at Pullens Buildings, 162 Amelia Street, Walworth, London. The census return specifically mentioned the British Museum, where Pullen’s personal occupation was given as “commissionaire.” That gave me enough information to link him with Rifleman Edward Richard Holtun (i.e. Holttum or Holtum) Pullen of the 12th Battalion, Rifle Brigade (Service No B/202213), who was killed in action on the 23rd March 1918, aged 43, and is commemorated on the Pozières Memorial. His entry in the CWGC database stated that he was the son of John Pullen of 12 Sturry Road, Canterbury, and the husband of Ellen Pullen, of 162 Amelia Street.

Edward Richard Holtum Pullen was born at Charlton, near Dover (Kent) in 1878, the son of John Pullen, a baker, and Emily Jane Pullen (née Holttum or Holtum). In November 1898, when he was aged nineteen, Edward enlisted in the Coldstream Guards (Service No. 2208) and served as a Private with the 3rd Battalion in the UK and Gibraltar (1899) and then as a Lance Corporal with the 2nd Battalion in South Africa (1900-1902), qualifying for the South African Medal and the King’s South African Medal, both with various clasps (WO 97/5728/31, Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913, The National Archives; via Findmypast). Edward Pullen married Ellen Redding at Paddington (registration district) in 1908. Ellen had been born at Severn Stoke (Worcestershire) in 1867, the daughter of Alfred Redding, a painter, and Jane Redding (née Morriss). The 1901 Census recorded her as a thirty-two-year-old housemaid domestic, resident at 29 Sussex Square, Paddington.

R. Sheehy

Private Robert Sheehy of 880th Area Employment Company, Labour Corps (Service No. 408820), previously of the 2nd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (Service No. 13729), died on the 23rd April 1918, aged 41. He is buried in Étaples Military Cemetery.

Like Rifleman Pullen, Robert Sheehy was not the easiest person to track down in genealogical records. The most complete record was from the 1901 Census, which recorded him living at 4, The Village, Hampstead. At the time of that census, he was part of the extended household of his fifty-nine-year-old widowed mother, Maria Sheehy, whom it stated had been born at Oakley (Bedfordshire) in around 1841. The household included two of Maria’s adult children, her son-in-law and granddaughter, as well as a boarder. At the time the census was taken, Robert Sheehy was twenty-three years old and already working as a duster at the British Museum. His older sister, Elizabeth, was twenty-seven. Both had been born at Hampstead North End. Maria Sheehy died at Hampstead (registration district) in 1907, aged 66. By then, Robert Sheehy had already married Ellen Mary Swain at Thanet (registration district) in 1906. Ellen had been born at Margate on the 29 March 1883, the daughter of Amelia and James Swain. Private Sheehy’s CWGC record indicates that his widow lived at Margate (1, Park Place) after the war. Unfortunately, I could not find any evidence of the family in the 1911 Census.

J. M. Seeley

It proved even harder to definitively identify J. M. Seeley. The closest match in the CWGC database was the entry for Guardsman John Moffatt Seeley of the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards (Service No. 24712), who died on the 3rd February 1919, aged 41, and who is buried in St. Sever Cemetery Extension at Rouen. His CWGC record states that Guardsman Seeley was the son of Abraham Seeley of Boxted (Suffolk) and the husband of Sarah Ann Seeley, of 70, Tremadoc Road, High Street, Clapham, London. John Moffat Seeley was born at Boxted in 1878, the son of Abraham and Jane Seeley. He married Sarah Ann Lemmon at Wandsworth (registration district) in 1904. John featured in several census returns when he was living with his family at Boxted, but I drew a complete blank in the 1911 Census, until I managed to track him and his wife down under a mistranscribed family name (since corrected), resident at 53 Chadwick Road, Peckham. At that time, John Moffat Seeley was thirty-two years old and working as a jobmaster’s horse keeper, while Sarah Ann was thirty-four. While I cannot be absolutely certain that this John Moffat Seeley is the same person as that named on the British Museum memorials, it does seem to be highly-likely.

Ieper: The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial to the Missing (West-Vlaanderen); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/9105108792

Appendix B: The British Museum (Natural History) War Memorial:

I have organised those named on the memorial in the order of their deaths, and have added some basic information from the database of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and other sources, including the museum’s own War Memorial Record (1922):

Duncan H. Gotch (Imperial Bureau of Entomology): Second Lieutenant Duncan Hepburn Gotch, “B” Coy., 1st Bn., Worcestershire Regiment; killed in action 11 March 1915, aged 23; born Bassingburne (Northamptonshire) 1891, the son of Davis F. and Ethel Gotch; attended Oundle School, 1905-1910, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, graduated 1912; appointed Assistant in the Imperial Bureau of Entomology 1913; previously served with Artists’ Rifles, the 28th (County of London) Bn., London Regiment (Le Touret Memorial, France, Panel 17 and 18); also named on war memorials in Northamptonshire at: Ablington; Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Northampton; and Oundle School Chapel; photograph in IWM Bond of Sacrifice collection: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205295654

E. George Gentry (Department of Botany): Lance Corporal Ernest George Gentry (Service Number: 6898), 2nd Bn., East Surrey Regiment; killed in action 13 July 1915; born Westminster 1884; married to Hilda Mary French 1904, three children; appointed Boy Attendant (Dept. Zoology) 1899, promoted Attendant 1903, transferred to Dept. Botany 1910; at the time of Pte Gentry’s death, the 2nd East Surreys were in trenches at Vierstraat, near Ypres (Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial to the Missing, Belgium, Panel 34)

John Gabriel (Department of Entomology): Private John Gabriel (Service Number: 2865), 15th (County of London) Bn., London Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles); killed in action 30 July 1916, aged 26; born Fulham 1889, the son of William Gabriel and Matilda Gabriel, née Randall; appointed Boy Attendant in 1905, promoted Attendant 1910; his brother Alfred G. Gabriel worked as an Attendant at the British Museum (Marœuil British Cemetery, France, III. B. 10.); photograph in IWM Bond of Sacrifice collection at: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205295182

George Pagnoni (Department of Geology): Private George Pagnoni (Service Number: 4187), 13th (County of London) Bn., London Regiment (Kensington); died of wounds at Fulham Military Hospital, 17 September 1916, aged 18; born St Leonards-on-Sea (Sussex) 1898, the son of Henry Giovanni Pagnoni and Florence Pagnoni, née Bendall; according to the museum’s War Memorial Record, George “lost his parents early, and was brought up by his Aunt, Miss R. Pagnoni” (Rosa Pagnoni, a school teacher for the London County Council (LCC), later a headmistress); the 1911 Census recorded George, aged 12, living with his parents and an elder sister, Irene Carter Pagnoni, at St Leonards (32 Southwater Road); George’s father died later that same year; His mother lived on until her death in 1940, electoral registers showing that she remained resident at Southwater Road until at least the early 1930s; however, the 1939 Register recorded her as “incapacitated,” and resident at the French Protestant Hospital, Victoria Park Road, South Hackney; George had some Italian ancestry: his paternal grandfather, Angelo Pagnoni, had been born at Bologna (Ronchi di Bagnarola) in the 1820s, and had married Jane Carter in her home town of Cheltenham in 1859; George’s sister (Irene) later in life became a LCC school teacher, and died at Rochester in 1983; George was appointed Boy Attendant at the museum in 1913; Private Pagnoni was wounded near Albert in July 1916, treated in hospital at Le Tréport, then repatriated in August; the report that he had been wounded near Albert suggests that Private Pagnoni would have been a member of the 1st Kensingtons, aka the 1/13th Londons, and (therefore) would have been in the same unit as Private Charles Robert Dunt from the Bloomsbury site, who was killed in action near Gommecourt on the 1st July 1916 (Kensal Green (All Souls’) Cemetery, United Kingdom, 213. 6. 9., Screen Wall)

Stanley T. Wells (Department of Zoology): Private Stanley Thomas Wells (Service Number: 532040, also 4674), “D” Coy., 1/15th (County of London) Bn., London Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles); killed in action 19 September 1916, aged 22; born Stockwell 1894, the son of Thomas and Alice Elizabeth Wells, of 33, Elmsleigh Rd., East Hill, Wandsworth, London; appointed Boy Attendant 1908, promoted Attendant 1914; his father also worked at the museum, as a Chief Attendant (Thiepval Memorial, France, Pier and Face 13 C.)

Robert J. Swift (Contractors’ Staff): Gunner Robert James Swift (Service Number: 3474), 1st Bty., 45th Bde., Royal Field Artillery; killed in action 10 November 1916; born Pimlico 1881; married (1911) with one son; had previously served during the South African War (Thiepval Memorial, France, Pier and Face 1 A and 8 A.)

F. Gilbert Wiltshear (Department of Botany): Rifleman Felix Gilbert Wiltshear (Service Number: R/32865), 10th Bn., King’s Royal Rifle Corps; died of wounds 23 November 1917, aged 35; born Kensington 1882, the son of Felix Gilbert and Fanny Wiltshear; married 1909, two sons; husband of Ellen Barbara Wiltshear, of 19, Ellerby St., Fulham, London; appointed Boy Attendant 1896, promoted Attendant 1900 (Rocquigny- Équancourt Road British Cemetery, Manancourt, France, III. B. 14.)

I. J. Frederick Kingsbury (Department of Zoology): Private Isaac James Frederick Kingsbury (Service Number: 532927), 2/15th (County of London) Bn., London Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles); died of wounds 22 February 1918, aged 24; born Fulham 1893, the son of Isaac James Kingsbury and Elizabeth Kingsbury; appointed Boy Attendant 1908, promoted Attendant 1914; saw service in France, Salonika, Egypt and Palestine (Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel and Palestine, Q. 35.)

John H. Smitheringale (Contractors’ Staff): Private John Henry Smitheringale (Service Number: 233848), 2/2nd (City of London) Bn., London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers); killed in action 21 March 1918; born Meltham (Yorkshire) 1879; on the opening day of the German Spring Offensive, the 2/2nd Londons were in the forward zone, opposite La Fère (Pozières Memorial, France, Panels 85 and 86.)

Charles Hill (Department of Entomology): Lance Sergeant Charles Hill (Service Number: 530038), 15th (County of London) Bn., London Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles); died of wounds 10 May 1918, aged 28; born Fulham 1889, the son of James and Emma Hill, of 4, Kimbell Gardens, Fulham; appointed Boy Attendant 1903, promoted Attendant 1910; wounded at Menin Road, Ypres, 15 September 1917, then, according the War Memorial Record, Lance Sergeant Hill was “accidentally killed during machine-gun demonstration on Wimbledon Common on the 10th May 1918“ (Fulham Palace Road Cemetery, United Kingdom, 7. F. 21.)

Edward A. Bateman (Imperial Bureau of Entomology): Private Edward Albert Bateman (Service Number: 35968), 1st Battalion, Norfolk Regiment; died of wounds 29 June 1918, aged 18; born London (Surrey Square) 1899, the son of Frank and Emma Bateman, of 200, Valley Rd., Streatham, London; appointed Boy Attendant 1914 (Terlingthun British Cemetery, Wimille, near Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, I. C. 22.)

Frederick J. Bean (Department of Geology): Private Frederick John Bean (Service Number: 738236), 24th (County of London) Bn., London Regiment (The Queen’s); killed in action 22 August 1918, aged 18; formerly 557150 16th (County of London) Bn, London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles); born Wandsworth 1899, the son of Frederick George and Emily Bean, of Wandsworth, London; appointed Boy Attendant 1913 (Bray Hill British Cemetery, Bray-sur-Somme, France, I. B. 10.)

Thomas Douglas (Cleaners’ Staff): Private Thomas Douglas (Service Number: 368046), 7th (City of London) Bn., London Regiment; died of broncho-pneumonia at No. 51 Clearing Station, 18 March 1919, aged 29; formerly 4692, 11th (County of London) Bn., London Regiment (Finsbury Rifles); born London (Bethnal Green Road) 1890, the son of William and Rebecca Douglas, of 60, Sandilands Rd., Fulham, London; appointed to the cleaners’ staff 1913 (Tournai Communal Cemetery Allied Extension, Belgium, IV. J. 12.)

From this information, it is possible to identify a few trends. Eight of the thirteen were serving at the time of their deaths with battalions of the London Regiment, four of them with units of the 15th (County of London) Battalion, the Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles. All but two died (or were mortally wounded) while serving on the Western Front, the exceptions being Private Kingsbury, who was with the 60th (2/2nd London) Division in Palestine, and Private Hill, who recovered from wounds suffered on active service on the Western Front, only to die in a training accident at Wimbledon. At least three of the thirteen were killed in action or wounded during the fighting on the Somme front in 1916. Five more died in 1918, making the final year of the war the deadliest one of all for the museum staff.

Tournai: Tournai Communal Cemetery (Hainaut); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/50649807537