(High resolution) April 2011 (PDF

Exhibitions
Wives and Sweethearts Exhibition
At The National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Road,
Chelsea, London, SW3 4HT
Using touching letters from the front line alongside a
selection of images and love tokens, Wives &
Sweethearts looks at the effect of Army life on the personal
relationships of soldiers and their partners and families.
Included are fascinating items from the Napoleonic,
Crimean and World War conflicts as well as modern day
content exploring the ongoing challenges of love on the front
line.
Opens 9 February until 30 July.
Free entry.
Four key themes of the exhibition:
• Courtship and Engagement explores the beginnings of
soldiers' partnerships. The section focusing on weddings
highlights the immense contrast between wartime and
peacetime marriage ceremonies, especially in the 20th
century
• Women of the Regiment looks at the roles of women in
the Army during the 19th century
• Separation forms the largest part of the exhibition looks
at what is perhaps the hardest aspect of life with a
soldier; the long periods of separation it often entails
• Reunion takes into account the fact that soldiers' return
to their loved ones, although usually joyful in the long
run, can often be painful and difficult at first.
Key exhibition items from Napoleonic, Crimean, Boer, First
and Second World Wars, the Korean War, the Falklands
War and the Gulf War:
• Love token sent to his wife from an soldier at Waterloo
• Roger Fenton photographs of ‘Women of the Regiment’
during the Crimean War
• A Boer War letter sent with a pressed flower
• Embroidered postcards from the First World War
• Diamond-encrusted sweetheart brooch from the Second
World War
• Letters and photographs from the Falklands, Korean,
and Gulf Wars
• Oral histories from current soldier’s wives and
sweethearts
20 MAGAZINE ISSUE 06
Lucy Denyer – Writer, The Times correspondent and an
Army wife - 2011
“Falling in love with someone in the Army is like falling
in love with anyone else. But when it comes to having a
relationship with that person, there are certain issues to
face. For the enlisted soldier, the Army is not a regular 9-5
job, it is a 24/7 commitment, and unfortunately, for the
majority of the time, if the Army calls - whether for a 3am
parade or a six-month deployment - the solider or officer
must go, regardless of what is happening at home. Being
married to someone in that situation can make one feel like
something of a chattel, sent to wherever is convenient and
ordered to get on with life. This is hard if you never signed
up to the military yourself - if you're married to someone in
the Army, it does tend to take over your existence as well,
which can seem very unfair. Plus a 10-year job in the Army
doesn't mean living in the same place for 10 years, which
makes it hard to get on with your own career and make
plans - unless one is prepared to potentially separate the
family yet further. On the plus side, there are unexpected
perks to having a soldier for a husband. Random bouts of
leave which can allow for adventurous travel, the
opportunity to live in far-flung places, the help the Army
gives to families, including schooling and welfare support.
And of course the ready-made camaraderie it presents: no
matter how much you might resist being a 'trailing spouse',
there is comfort in meeting others in the same situation,
with the same frustrations.
How to deal with it all? Communication is key - that and
accepting that this is the way it is, for now. And not letting
yourself become a doormat either. So what if your soldier
husband is sent to Afghanistan for half a year - that doesn't
mean you have to put your own life on hold for the same
amount of time. It's difficult, but not impossible.”
Soldier’s letter written by L/Cpl David Banham, HM 94th
Regiment of Foot, from Moulmein, Burma to England, 1
Aug 1845
I think of all the lives of misery in this world a married
soldiers is the worst. Would to God my poor deluded
countrywomen who are continually marring soldiers, could
picture to themselves one half of the misery and
degradation which must follow such such a step.
If I had my mind no man beneath a commission should
be allowed to bring a wife into the army. I have seen simple
country girls turn out such low detestable characters under