The National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth, formerly known as the Royal Naval Museum, is a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

of the

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

located in the

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is an area of HM Naval Base Portsmouth which is open to the public; it contains several historic buildings and ships. It is managed by the National Museum of the Royal Navy as an umbrella organization representing ...

section of

HMNB Portsmouth His Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth (HMNB Portsmouth) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Devonport). Portsmouth Naval Base is part of the city of Portsmouth; it is loc ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England. The museum is part of the

National Museum of the Royal Navy The National Museum of the Royal Navy was created in early 2009 to act as a single non-departmental public body for the museums of the Royal Navy. With venues across the United Kingdom, the museums detail the history of the Royal Navy operating ...

, a

non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process o ...

History

The museum was founded in 1911. Known originally as the Dockyard Museum, it was conceived by Mr. Mark Edwin Pescott-Frost, then secretary to the Admiral Superintendent at Portsmouth. With a passion for naval history he spearheaded a project to save items for future generations, eventually leading to the opening of a new museum. His foresight ensured the survival of many interesting and important artefacts, several of which are still on display today. He was awarded in 1916 the

Imperial Service Order The Imperial Service Order was established by King Edward VII in August 1902. It was awarded on retirement to the administration and clerical staff of the Civil Service throughout the British Empire for long and meritorious service. Normally a pe ...

. In 1985, under the terms of the

National Heritage Act 1983 National Heritage Act is a stock short title used in Malaysia and the United Kingdom for legislation relating to national heritage. List Malaysia *The National Heritage Act 2005 United Kingdom The National Heritage Acts comprise four acts of t ...

, the museum was devolved from the Ministry of Defence to become an executive non-departmental public body, supported by a grant-in-aid. At this juncture, the name was changed to become the "Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth." In 2008, the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) formally came into being with the express purpose of providing greater co-ordination of naval heritage in the broadest sense and, following on from this, in 2010, the Royal Naval Museum became a full subsidiary of the National Museum of the Royal Navy, and changed its name to "National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth"

Buildings and exhibits

The museum is housed in a row of three buildings which face . No. 11 Storehouse dates from 1763, and the adjacent No. 10 Storehouse from 1776; both are

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The Victory Gallery is a purpose-built museum building of 1938. , a World War I

Monitor Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, Wes ...

warship, is also part of the museum; she was opened to the public in 2015, her centenary year. No. 11 Storehouse contains various exhibition spaces relating to the

Age of Sail The Age of Sail is a period in European history that lasted at the latest from the mid-16th (or mid-15th) to the mid-19th centuries, in which the dominance of sailing ships in global trade and warfare culminated, particularly marked by the int ...

. The restored No. 10 Storehouse opened to the public in 2014 as the Babcock Galleries, housing a new permanent exhibition telling the story of the 20th- and 21st-century Navy, as well as temporary exhibition spaces. It also houses the ''Trafalgar Sail'' (the fore topsail of HMS ''Victory'', said to be the largest surviving single original artefact from the

Battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the Royal Navy and a combined fleet of the French Navy, French and Spanish Navy, Spanish navies during the War of the Third Coalition. As part of Na ...

). A new glass atrium links the two historic storehouses. * ''Victory Gallery'' "tells the story of HMS ''Victory'' and the people who lived, worked and fought on board". * ''Nelson Gallery'' tells the story of Horatio, Viscount Nelson. * ''Sailing Navy Gallery'' tells of life at sea in the Sailing Navy. * ''HMS Hear My Story'' tells "undiscovered stories from the ordinary men, women and ships which have made the Navy‘s amazing history over the last 100 years".

References

External links

National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth
Official website. {{coord, 50.8007, -1.1098, display=title, region:GB-POR_type:landmark Maritime museums in England Naval museums in England Museums in Portsmouth Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)