Category: Projects
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Finsbury Rifles, Away from the Western Front: 22nd January to 27th January 1916
In this passage we can see the impact of weather conditions on the routine of the Regiment, with a violent hurricane blowing down numerous tents in the middle of the night. We are also introduced to the 3/11 London Regiment (Finsbury Rifles), which was formed after the outbreak of war. Its purpose…
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Finsbury Rifles, Away from the Western Front: 15th January to 21st January
Date: 15/1/16 Staff Ride for mounted Officers. Battalion on duty. Routine as usual. Date: 16/1/16 Church parade. Routine as usual. 1 man to hospital. Date: 17/1/16 Normal Camp Routine. Battalion on duty. Date: 18/1/16 Orders received that battn would return to SIDI BISHR following day. Advance party sent over to…
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Finsbury Rifles, Away from the Western Front: 8th January to 14th January 1916
This portion of the diary illuminates the routine and repetition which defined much of the soldiers’ experience. The 1/11th London Regiment was not operating in isolation but belonged to the 162nd Brigade, itself part of the larger 54th (East Anglian) Division. Many of the military exercises and duties mentioned in the battalion diary such as…
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Finsbury Rifles, Away from the Western Front: 1st January to 7th January 1916
In this passage we learn about how the Battalion established their camp at Sidi Bishr, including building trenches in the sand. Although taken at a later point in the year, when the Regiment was located at Ashton Post along the Suez Canal, the image below illustrates some of the challenges facing soldiers building…
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Finsbury Rifles, Away from the Western Front: 19th December to 31st December 1915
Having arrived in Egypt, from the Gallipoli campaign, the Rifles pitched camp in Sidi Bishr, a large camp near to Alexandria. While the Diary does not log a delousing and cleaning session on arrival in Egypt, Joe Guthrie, Machine Gun Sargent for the Finsbury Rifles, recalls his experiences on arrival in…
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Finsbury Rifles, Away from the Western Front: 19th December to 27th December 1915
In Islington’s Gallipoli we blogged the 1/11th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (the Finsbury Rifles’) War Diary. We followed their often heartbreaking daily log, charting their experiences in Gallipoli. In December 1915 the Battalion left Gallipoli on HMT ALAUNIA. The next two years would see them visit Egypt, Palestine and Syria, experiencing new…
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Islington’s Pride: an archive for the future
We are very excited to be launching a new exhibition at Islington Museum – Islington’s Pride: an archive for the future. Tuesday 31 January – 16 March 2017 Islington Museum, 245 St John Street, Open daily 10am – 5pm (closed Wednesday and Sunday) This exhibition takes a look at some…
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Visiting HMP Holloway
Roz Currie, Curator Holloway Prison closed this summer -the last prisoner left on 17th June 2016. Until May it was the largest women’s prison in Britain, holding around 450 inmates. Entrance to Holloway Prison just before it closed in June 2016 The prison was established in 1852 on Camden Road in Holloway,…
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Curating Imagine Islington
Roz Currie, Curator During 2015 and 2016 Islington Museum worked on an Arts Council England project, ‘Imagine Islington‘, exploring objects from the museum collection. Three different artists and six primary school classes were inspired by six objects from our collection. The exhibition brings together the six objects and the artworks they…
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Musical cabinets of curiosities with St Mary Magdalene Academy
Wunderkammer, or cabinets of curiosities, were the precursors to the modern museum. These cabinets appeared in mid-sixteenth century Europe as repositories for wondrous and exotic objects. In 2014/15 Islington Museum worked in partnership with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) and the music department at Saint Mary Magdalene…
Friends of Islington Museum 