ASH­CROFT DECRIES GAL­LERY REPLACEMENT

 
Lord Ashcroft at the now-closed exhibit

THE Imper­ial War Museum has been accused of neg­lect­ing Vic­toria Cross her­oes in favour of trans­gender his­tory.

The upper floor of the museum once housed the world's largest collec­tion of the medals, which are Bri­tain's highest mil­it­ary honour.

However, the museum announced earlier this year that the exhib­i­tion would be closed, and cur­at­ors have been accused of pivot­ing to focus on LGBT his­tory. A vir­tual tour titled Refrac­ted His­tor­ies: Explor­ing LGBTQ+ Stor­ies in Times of Con­flict has been launched, allow­ing vis­it­ors to learn about the "LGBTQ+ com­munity" that has "always been present dur­ing times of con­flict".

Sub­jects in the new self-guided LGBT tour include "drag shows" in POW camps,

Lord Ash­croft, who owns the Vic­toria Cross col­lec­tion, was aghast at the decision to remove the on-loan medals, and has now accused the museum of being "bey­ond par­ody".

The Tory peer claimed in a mes­sage on X that the new LGBT tour was "part of the reason" the Imper­ial War Museum "kicked out over 200 Vic­toria Crosses telling the incred­ible stor­ies of the bravest of the brave". The Lord Ash­croft gal­lery was opened in 2010 fol­low­ing a £5 mil­lion dona­tion from the life peer, and it was used to house his £70m col­lec­tion of medals, which were to be loaned for 15 years.

The gal­lery per­man­ently closed in June and the col­lec­tion was returned to Lord Ash­croft, who claimed that he had no prior knowledge of the plans to shut down the space.

The Imper­ial War Museum said it plans to expand its mater­ial relating to con­flict post-Second World War, mak­ing use of what was the Lord Ash­croft Gal­lery.

To read the complete article, see:
Museum ‘replaces Ash­croft medal gal­lery with trans his­tory tour' (https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-daily-telegraph-saturday/20251227/281711211005928)
Imperial War Museum accused of removing medals to promote LGBTQ history (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/26/imperial-war-museum-accused-remove-medals-promote-trans/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
MUSEUM TO CLOSE VICTORIA CROSS EXHIBIT (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n09a27.html)

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