The Forgotten Frontline Exhibition at Powell-Cotton Museum, House & Gardens

This year the country has been remembering the events of 1940 – the Dunkirk evacuation and the Blitz among them. At the Powell-Cotton Museum it is a significant anniversary too. It is 70 years since the death of the Museum founder – Percy Powell-Cotton.

He died in the Cottage Hospital at Midhurst in Sussex while on a visit to his sister nearby. He had been ill for a number of months and had gone to Sussex in the hope of recuperation. The story of the Major’s life and work is on permanent display in the entrance corridor to the museum.

It had been a worrying time at Quex. The problems and experience of wartime were familiar to Major and Mrs Powell-Cotton as the house and museum had served during the Great War as a hospital.

However, in 1940 the dangers were greater, with the threat of a big air war as well as the possibility of invasion. The last few weeks of Major Powell-Cotton’s life were beset by these concerns and the very real possibility that his life’s work would be destroyed. In addition, his only son Christopher had joined The Buffs (the East Kent Regiment) and was likely to see active service.

The story of those dark days under the shadow of enemy attack are recalled in a small exhibition at the Museum. The Forgotten Frontline, by local historian and archaeologist Mark Harrison, together with a selection of artefacts from the Powell-Cotton collection, shows how the nation braced itself for the likelihood of a Nazi invasion. The exhibition will run until the end of August.

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