Childhood in War

Look for

• Alfie Knight's letter to Lord Kitchener (1914)

  Look for a nine-year-old's handwritten offer to ride despatch "jolley quick" on his bicycle, shown with the reply he got back.

• The evacuee train carriage

  Sit inside a recreated Second World War carriage, with newsreel footage running past the windows and evacuees' letters and recorded testimonies.

• Paddy's letter from Canada (1943)

  A homesick evacuee begs his parents for return tickets and draws himself swimming back to Bristol harbour.

• Jochewet Heidenstein's red jumper

  A knitted jumper her parents gave her before she left for the UK on the Kindertransport.

• Drawings by children from Sudan

  Children's pictures of the war that were used as evidence of war crimes at the International Criminal Court.

Good for

• Cheap Culture
• Rainy Days
• Teenagers

Skip if

You want case after case of objects: this is built around room-sets and hands-on interactives.

With kids

IWM recommends it for ages 8 and up, with younger children welcome. Kids collect stamps at six points on a children's-book trail, play a giant board game, sit in the evacuee carriage and guess smells at the kitchen scent table.