Ten of the best military museums in the UK

Did you know that we insure lots of old military vehicles here at Lancaster as well as classic cars? From old military Land Rovers to full-on tanks, we’ve got you covered!

If you’re a lover of all things military, here are a few destinations that we think you’ll enjoy exploring this year. Just make sure you’ve got the right classic car insurance in place if you’re travelling in your own military classic.

1. Imperial War Museum London, Lambeth Road

London’s Imperial War Museum has to get a mention in this list, simply by virtue of its sheer size, exhaustive detail and wealth of fascinating themes and exhibits.

You’re spoilt for choice here: but for a few suggestions, you might want to learn more about life on the front line and at home over a century ago, in the Museum’s First World War galleries. Elsewhere, Curiosities of War is an intriguing display featuring various unusual objects from the IWM collections – including a section of the bar in Lincolnshire where the legendary Dambusters crew used to drink in between daredevil raids over Germany, and a sofa made from bastion fencing by British troops in Afghanistan.

Or head to the Turning Points: 1934-45 section to see The Mitsubishi A6M fighter, aka the Zero, that was flown by the Imperial Japanese Navy and feared by Allied pilots. Badly damaged in 1943 during combat over the remote Marshall Islands, the Zero was left to decay until it was found half a century later. Large chunks of the plane were lost to the jungle humidity, but the section that remains offers some interesting clues to its past, including a British bullet buried in the fuselage and a dried lotus flower, a good luck symbol that the Japanese pilots will have brought on board.

2. National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

Part of the large and impressive display of naval history that is Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard, the National Museum of the Royal Navy gives visitors a hugely detailed insight into the history of our national navy. Visitors learn how the Royal Navy made Britain into a dominant sea power, protecting our trade in troubled times and defending us from invasion.
The museum is centred on the gallery Hear My Story, which introduces visitors to stories from the men and women of the Navy’s past 100 years, a century of great change and turbulence.

Among other sections, the Sailing Gallery shows the realities of fighting at sea in the age of sail, while the Nelson Gallery examines the colourful, crowded and short life of a national Naval icon. Perhaps the Museum’s most immersive exhibit is the multimedia show The Trafalgar Experience, in which visitors meet Nelson and his nemesis Napoleon, and even feel the blast from the guns during the ultimate battle of the Napoleonic Wars.

3. RAF Museum Cosford, near Telford, Shropshire

The Royal Air Force Museum was created to mark the RAF’s 50^th anniversary, with a London site opened in 1972. From 1979, the Museum also managed the Cosford Aerospace Museum for the Ministry of Defence. This became, in 1998, the RAF Museum Cosford. Arranged across a series of hangars and outdoor exhibits, Cosford’s impressive array of aeronautical history includes the section War in the Air, a display of British, German and Japanese aircraft, all with an important place in the development of military aviation.

Elsewhere, Hangar 1 is given over to the Museum’s collection of transport and training aircraft, including some of the largest and smallest machines flown by the RAF. A section entitled Radar Echoing Models is given over to aircraft, missiles and tanks used in intelligence gathering; Air Gunners takes you into the skilled and stressful world of these airborne sharpshooters, while Prisoners of War explores Cosford’s role as a POW reception centre.

Other exhibits include a Vickers VC10 aircraft, holder of the record for the fastest subsonic crossing of the Atlantic (five hours and one minute); and a khaki green Opel Senator car, one of the Cold War’s unlikeliest yet most effective weapons – family saloons brilliantly modified into elite surveillance vehicles.

4. Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton, Somerset

Europe's largest naval aviation museum, Somerset’s Fleet Air Arm Museum is dedicated to the eponymous airborne section of the Royal Navy. With its four exhibition halls, over 90 aircraft and 30,000 artefacts, the museum is a hugely revealing insight into the Fleet Air Arm, which is responsible for the delivery of naval air power from both land and at sea.

Don’t miss the award-winning Aircraft Carrier Experience, an immersive exhibit that sees visitors ‘flying’ by helicopter to the replica flight deck of the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. Once on board, you'll be able to see fighter aircraft in the skies around you, while two huge projection screens show a Phantom strike fighter and a Buccaneer strike bomber taking off and landing. You’ll also visit the 'Island' control rooms and bridge – and even see a nuclear warhead up close.

We also like the look of new exhibition Pioneers to Professionals: Women in the Royal Navy, which traces the role of women in the service through the years.

5. National War Museum, Edinburgh Castle

Within the dramatic surroundings of Edinburgh Castle, overlooking the Scottish capital, Scotland’s National War Museum documents over 400 years of conflict through a unique collection of military objects, artwork and personal stories.

Its various captivating sections include A Nation in Arms, which explores how conflicts at home and abroad have shaped Scotland's image and reputation over the centuries. You’ll learn how the division between Highland and Lowland, a long coastline, and access to important sea routes have influenced Scotland’s strategic importance; and discover more about the relationship with Scotland’s powerful neighbour, England, and the opportunity that the army represented for ordinary Scots.

Elsewhere, A Grand Life for a Scotsman follows the history of Scots joining the British military. This section includes a fascinating collection of posters designed to attract Scots into the armed forces, as well as uniform, souvenirs, personal possessions and letters home.

The Museum’s rich and varied collection of individual exhibits also includes a pistol taken from a German spy arrested at Waverley station in 1940; and Bob, the regimental pet of the Scots Fusilier Guards, 1st Battalion, from 1853-1860, lovingly stuffed complete with a silver medal on his collar.

6. Monmouth Regimental Museum, Monmouth, Wales

Housed in a wing of Monmouth's imposing 17^th Century Great Castle House and staffed by volunteers, this museum tells the story of the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers from its very first muster during the reign of Henry VIII.

For the next three centuries the Royal Monmouthshire Light Infantry, as it was then known, became a Militia (non-professional) regiment, officered by the local aristocracy, whose primary duty was to maintain law and order around the county.

The arrival of new police forces in the 19th Century left the Regiment in search of a new direction, and this is when it switched to its modern role in the Royal Engineers Reserve. These days, the Royal Monmouthshire is the Senior Regiment of the Reserve Army, and the only regiment to have survived from Militia days.

The museum itself explains the Militia system in detail, and reveals the Regiment’s links with the powerful Dukes of Beaufort and with Monmouth town. Elsewhere, exhibits recount the Regiment’s service in the Militia and the Boer War, in the two World Wars, and in more recent conflicts. Mine clearance, the Home Front and women’s roles also feature.

7. Russian Arctic Convoy Museum, Birchburn, Wester Ross, Scotland

Situated along a remote section of Scotland's beautiful West Coast, this one merits inclusion because of the enthralling story it documents: one of the most audacious Allied operations of World War Two.

During the war, the nearby Loch Ewe became the temporary base for the Navy's Home Fleet, and from 1942 onwards was also used as an assembly point for the Arctic Convoys, which delivered essential supplies to the Soviet Union to help that nation defend itself against the invading Nazi forces. The Russian Arctic Convoy Museum is a lasting legacy to those who braved Arctic waters under constant threat of attack from enemy aircraft and U-boats.

The Museum's collection of Arctic Convoy artefacts includes ships’ instruments, photographs, written accounts, uniforms, ships’ logs, medals, toys, models and much more. Children can try on gas masks and learn about air raids, rationing and wartime toys. And if you're in the zone, you can even try your hand at a game of Battleships – albeit a far less lethal version than those the Convoys endured.

8. Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum, Caernarfon, North Wales

Housed within two towers of the magnificent Caernarfon Castle, the Royal Welch Museum tells the story of more than 300 years of service by Wales' oldest infantry regiment.

You’ll find out all about how the Regiment won no less than 14 Victoria Crosses, see what life was like for the ordinary Royal Welch soldier and his family, and discover the Regiment's unique traditions. You'll even hear from some of the writers who served with the unit during World War One, including poets Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves.

The Royal Welch was at the forefront of some of the key engagements of the last three centuries, including the campaigns of William III (William of Orange), the American War of Independence, the wars with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, and the Crimean and Boer Wars. Many battalions also saw action in the First and Second World Wars.

The excellent Royal Welch Museum reveals some of the Regiment's unique traditions – how it fought to keep its distinctive uniform, for example; how the Welsh language deceived the Japanese in Burma in 1944; how the universal soldier's nickname 'Tommy' started with the Royal Welch; or why, for almost 250 years of its history, the regiment always had its own ceremonial goat.

9. Grey Point Fort, Helen's Bay, County Down, Northern Ireland

One of Britain's best preserved coastal forts, Grey Point Fort is also home to an intriguing, hands-on military museum.

The Fort itself was built from 1904-07, centred upon two massive six-inch diameter guns which commanded the entrance to Belfast Lough. Those original guns were removed when the fort was disarmed in 1956, but today's Fort holds two magnificent 23-foot guns, obtained from fortifications in County Cork.

After inspecting the Fort's original observation post and three searchlight positions, you can explore the museum inside – a treasure trove of military memorabilia, including medals, uniforms, photographs and weaponry from both World Wars. Grey Point Fort also boasts an impressive collection of radio equipment, as well as a section devoted to the Titanic, Northern Ireland's most famous marine vessel.

If you have any unusual military vehicles or field guns to insure, give the team at Lancaster a call.

10. National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Road, London

This is the perfect museum to visit if you're after a broad sweep of British military history. The National Army Museum's four permanent exhibitions explore the changing role of the soldier in conflicts throughout the centuries. There are plenty of interactive exhibits along the way: you can get a bird's eye view of the Battle of Waterloo, for example, or explore how military-themed toys have been a part of British childhoods for some 200 years. Elsewhere, you may find yourself trying on an English Civil War helmet, or feeling the weight of a contemporary cannonball and chain mail armour.

The museum also uses objects and stories to examine our relationship with the Army. It examines the military as a cultural and military force that impacts on our customs, technologies and values – and it even poses such open-ended questions as 'Where does the Army come from?' and, indeed, 'Why do we have an Army?'.

Classic car insurance for military vehicles

Each of these brilliant museums reveals our nation's military past and present in vivid colour, and does so with a passion and attention to detail that we find inspiring.

Similarly, here at Lancaster Classic Car Insurance, we bring to bear a wealth of expertise and passion for the classic and military vehicles we insure. We know what your classic motor means to you, whether it’s an ex-military vehicle or not. So why not contact us today to arrange the classic car insurance your car deserves?

Policy benefits, features and discounts offered may very between insurance schemes or cover selected and are subject to underwriting criteria. Information contained within this article is accurate at the time of publishing but may be subject to change.