War Games – talk and review

I wasn’t sure which blog best suited this post, but as much of the exhibition content relates to 20th Century experience, I’m putting it here.

Some P.B.Eye-Candy regulars will have seen that the V&A/Museum of Childhood has just opened an exhibition on War Games – and that there was also lecture scheduled at the South Ken end of the organisation …

Well, a prior engagement meant I would be in town, so I went along.

My visit started at the Victoria & Albert Museum for the lunchtime talk by curators Sarah Wood and Ieuan Hopkins who looked at how toy manufacturers have responded to changing attitudes towards war, and the impact war can have on children’s play.  On what was a beautiful summer’s day in London, the majority were outside, enjoying the sun …

(early June … and a rare beautiful day at the V&A)

… but for the few braving the indoors, there was a fascinating explanation about how the exhibition was put together and some highlights of what was there.    The curators were candid about society’s underlying concerns over war toys and their influence on young minds … but clear that the evidence is at best equivocal: children explore what they see in the adult world around them, and that has always included war.

Children denied toy guns use conveniently shaped sticks instead (whether they grow up pacifists it is perhaps too early to say) …

Then again, there is no doubt that governments like to influence everyone, children included, in times of war – and the exhibition promised some great examples.

‘El Teb’ flats play set

There was a fascinating section on how quickly (cynically?) war toys follow real military events and technical developments … OK, I was aware of growing up with Cold War toys in the 60s (Dinky toy missile transporters and the like) but hadn’t realised that toy tanks were already on the market in 1916 (no sooner had you read about them in the papers, than the manufacturers had the toys in the shops!).   That wondeful EL Teb flats set was in production before all the troops came home.

I am also grateful to Sarah and Ieuan for taking the time to chat afterwards and share some of their ‘insider’ tips on looking after toy collections (and how they balance display and conservation) …

… and so, suitably briefed, it was off to Bethnal Green …

Now I have to own up that this was my first visit to the Museum of Childhood – and I have to say I was very impressed.   They have got a lot of stuff … and I like museums that have got a lot of stuff.  In a kind of old fashioned way, it is high on things to look at and low on telling you what to make of them.

toys old and new, sublime and ridiculous …

Now I should say that the exhibition itself is not a wargames expo, nor is it a history of the wargames figure (so I should not mislead you – if you want that, you want a show like Partizan or a Museum like the Cumbria venture …), but it is a well considered and well-researched look at how war is represented in toys and models and how playing at war has been a constant part of childhood.

The selection of games and toy soldiers and military models is well judged and includes both gems and old favourites … The Napoleonic period ‘Game of Besieging’ is a new one on me … yes, another form of ‘fox and geese’, but a great find …

The game of Besieging 1800-1825

… and I did not know that round the world yachtsman Sir Francis Chichester designed a navigational game ‘Pin Point the Bomber’ in 1942 (‘… the players are given clues as to their location and must combine these with using a compass and other navigational tools to pinpoint the the location of the bomber on the map’)

(early tank toy; ‘Little Wars’; Escape from Colditz; Pin Point the Bomber)

There were Action Men (GI Joe), Airfix kits and the Johnny 7 ‘one man army’ plastic toy gun ….

I thought the portrait dolls of Roberts and of Kitchener were great exhibits, so too the familiar Hitler puppet, and I really enjoyed the playful main captions built as giant aircraft model sprues.  All in all, a well judged appreciation of games of war, war toys and playing soldiers.

It is not a big exhibition, and would suit a lunchtime, I think.   Well worth visiting if you are in London (it runs until March 2014).

I might finish with a quote from one of the information boards (Playing at War) …

‘War play is controversial.  It is actively discouraged by many parents and teachers as it is thought to encourage aggression.  But aggressive play, a type of active play, is not the same as real aggression, in which a child intends to harm.

Research questioning whether war play and aggression are linked is inconclusive.  fears that they are may come from personal beliefs and assumptions influenced by the pacifist and feminist movements of the last fifty years.   Arguably war play can also bring benefits.  It can also help them distinguish good from bad and right from wrong.  It can help them to explore their feelings and understanding of an often violent adult world.’

*******

Society, of course, does not always encourage us to respect our enemies.  That’s an entirely different topic.  Get those Japs was a darts game.