This is the story of how a band of curators and custodians saved Britain’s national heritage during our Darkest Hour.
This lecture explores how, as Hitler’s forces gathered on the other side of the Channel to threaten these islands, men and women from London’s national museums, galleries and archives forged extraordinary plans to evacuate their collections to safety.
How to book this event:
Visitors are welcome to book tickets via the Campus West website at www.campuswest.org.uk
THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER

Dr Caroline Shenton
Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives in London, and before that was a senior archivist at the National Archives. Her book The Day Parliament Burned Down won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013 and Mary Beard called it ‘microhistory at its absolute best’. Its acclaimed sequel, Mr Barry’s War, about the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, was a Book of the Year in 2016 for The Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine and was described by Lucy Worsley as "a real jewel, finely wrought and beautiful". Caroline was Political Writer in Residence at Gladstone’s Library in 2017, has appeared at the Cheltenham, Hay and Henley literary festivals and on BBC radio and TV. Caroline’s third book, National Treasures, will tell the extraordinary and sometimes hilarious stories behind the saving of London’s art and museum collections in World War Two.
OTHER EVENTS
The National Gallery’s incredible diversity provides the opportunity to discover the science behind fine art.
A visit to view these remarkable medieval wall panels, hidden for centuries, and learn about their history