New Imperial exhibition will recount personal stories of the Great War

Current staff, former staff, students and alumni are invited to contribute memorabilia to mark the centenary commemorations of the First World War.

Staff and students at the College participated both professionally and personally in the conflict, both at home and fighting on the fronts in Europe and beyond.

Alongside a number of projects currently in planning to mark the achievements of the College’s scientists and engineers towards the war effort, an exhibition will present a more personal point of view – that of the family members of current staff and students as they experienced the terrible conflict.

If you are a member of Imperial staff, past or present, or a student or alumnus, and you have archive material or artefacts from a family member who participated directly in the war, please consider loaning it to the exhibition. It could be a photograph, official military papers, letters from family to soldiers, medals, souvenirs – or indeed anything from the years 1914–1918 and beyond.

Through the exhibition we hope to show how everyone in the country was affected in a wide range of ways by the war and its aftermath.

As an example, Dr Anna Nyburg (Co-Curricular Studies) has loaned material relating to her grandfather, Charles Nyburg, who lost his left arm fighting in the Durham Light Infantry in 1917.

A photograph shows how her father chose not to have a prosthetic arm to replace the limb he lost, as well as papers relating to his injury from the Army. The artefacts are all in excellent condition and provide moving personal testimony.

So please get checking your attics or boxes – there is plenty of time (our deadline for collection is September 2014) and we would like to get as wide a range of contributions as possible.”

For more details or to suggest an item or send an image for consideration contact Emily at: e.mayhew@imperial.ac.uk