A major new exhibition will bring the North East’s rich Durham Light Infantry historyto life – and it’s seeking your help. Gavin Engelbrecht reports

VETERANS, friends and families are to be asked for their input as work continues to create a commemorative exhibition on the history of the Durham Light Infantry.

The free attraction will see items from the DLI Collection on display at Palace Green Library, close to the DLI Chapel at Durham Cathedral and the DLI statue in the marketplace.

And curators are keen to tap into the passion and knowledge many members of the public possess.

Dr Keith Bartlett, director of culture at the University of Durham, said: “We appreciate the feeling that the county has for its regiment and we are working with the county council on ways in which we can support that.

“One of the ways we are looking at – and the details are still in discussion – is an exhibition on the history of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI).

“What we would like to do is work with the community to identify the items within the collection that we all love as being the story of the DLI.

“I’m from a DLI family myself, so I have my favourite objects in the collection. We want to make sure that we get everybody’s ideas as to how we can tell the story of our county regiment.

“We very much want it to be the gallery based around the community, rather than something we have developed in isolation.”

Dr Bartlett said the university sees Palace Green Library as being the ideal location for the new free exhibition.

He added: “It is in very close proximity to the DLI Chapel and the DLI Memorial Garden and it will bring those three together – so when people come to visit one they can visit all three.

“The DLI has had association with the county for more than 200 years, especially during the 20th Century when we had mass recruitment with the two world wars.

“Every family in Durham pretty much has association with the county regiment.

I was brought up believing there was only one regiment in the British Army, so it does have a special place in people’s hearts. The university is part of the Durham community and is happy to be able to support this.”

During the period of the First World War centenary, further exhibitions are envisaged around the city or the wider county, with details yet to be finalised.

Cllr Neil Foster, Durham County Council’s cabinet member for economic regeneration, arts and culture said: “Necessity is the mother of invention and you’ve only got to look at the challenges we have now and the continued financial pressures in the years to come to see we have to go out and be innovative.

“At the same time we want to make a strong statement about keeping the DLI in the centre of our great county.

“Placing a new, at least fiveyear exhibition on the DLI at Palace Green, near to both the DLI chapel at Durham Cathedral and DLI memorial statue in the Market Place, will bring this important part of our history to hundreds of thousands more people.

“The free History of the DLI gallery will see a range of items, including medals from the collection, loaned to the university, with expert curators from Durham University using them to tell the magnificent history of all those Durham men who did their county proud for over 200 years.

“Ahead of that opening we will consult families and friends of the DLI, and the public, about the stories and objects they would like to see included.”

The chairman of the DLI Trustees, James Ramsbotham, said the five-year History of the DLI exhibition, alongside the other events and exhibitions planned in 2016 and beyond, would offer an “exciting future” for the collection.

“Though the regiment no longer exists, having become the Light Infantry in 1968, then the Rifles in 2007, the DLI Collection is very highly respected and means so much to so many people, so we must ensure that the DLI story continues to be told.

“It is an exciting time as we have an opportunity to look to the next 50 years, and to find a sustainable solution for how we tell what is a county-wide story. However, to continue to engage people with our proud military history we have got to do something more dynamic, that will bring people back again and again.

“The regiment’s motto was ‘Faithful’ and that was not just faithful in battle but to the people of the county.

“One hundred years ago I don’t think there would have been one house that was not involved with the DLI in one way or another, but while looking back to the bravery and sacrifices of the past, we must ensure, like the regiment itself, that we are forward looking.

“That is what the History of the DLI exhibition will be a part of – a refreshing and reinvigorating of the way we tell the DLI story for future generations.

“Through that we can continue to celebrate how great we are as a county and ensure that such an important part of the Durham’s history – a history that continues to be written through the service of Durham’s modern day soldiers – is celebrated in the manner it so richly deserves.”