ABSTRACT
Experience of the museum service during the First World War had prepared curators for the next conflict. During that war, collections had been removed from display from 1915 following attacks from the air on the south and east of England. The national collections in London had been evacuated to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth or to storage in unused underground railway tunnels. The staff of the national museums could count on long-term employment security, protected by their national status whether they were open or closed, but as Henry Miers and Frank Markham observed, local museums had remained one of the least regarded of the civic services, and it was feared that if they were closed during the war, local authorities would let the service lapse permanently at the end of the conflict.
