Gurkha Museum to add Nepali voice to exhibits during closure for modernisation and update
One of the UK's most loved military museums is preparing to close its doors to renovate and modernise its collection.
The Gurkha Museum says it will spend about a year updating its site in Winchester after it closes its doors at the end of 2024.
While the museum and its collection will be modernised, it will use the period to examine how it can more authentically represent the experiences and voices of Gurkhas in the exhibits it has on display.
It's not a case of changing history, because that history is established, but it's more about looking closer at how that history was recorded.
Speaking exclusively to Forces News, museum director Dr Darren Bowyer said it was a "good museum, but it's more than 50 years old now".
He added: "It's fair to say that because they were the people who wrote the books and kept the records, it's very much given through the perspective of the British officer.
"That's fine. We want to keep that. But we also want to bring in more Nepali voices, and the Nepali tradition is more oral. So, we are collecting more oral histories that we can present in the museum."
The museum is located in Winchester's Military Quarter and includes hands-on exhibits depicting histories from the Gurkha's 200-year service to the British crown.
There is also a vast collection of medals, including several Victoria Crosses, which the museum is proud to look after.
Forces News was given access to two such Victoria Crosses, won during the Chindits campaign in Burma during the Second World War.
They were won by Captain Michael Allmand and Rifleman Tul Bahadur Pun during the same action in June 1944.
Dr Bowyer said: "Looking here at two genuine VCs, won behind Japanese lines in Burma and involved in a battle to take a railway bridge.
"Michael was leading his platoon and was taken out by machine-gun fire. Tul Bahadur was instrumental in taking a Japanese strong point.
"Both, for those separate actions within the same battle, were awarded Victoria Crosses, our highest award for gallantry."
Decades later, the museum had the opportunity to take in Captain Allmand's medal, but only on the stipulation that it be kept alongside that of his colleague, Tul Bahadur Pun.
To this day, the museum has both medals on display, side by side.
The museum, which will close for the upgrade at the end of 2024, will reopen to the public in 2026, but it intends to move some of its archives online and open pop-up exhibitions at busy locations during its closure.
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