The concept of a 'Home Front' with its own 'army' of civilians was introduced during the First World War. Prior to 1914, wars involving Britain and her colonies had been fought overseas by professional armies, with the civilian population physically detached from the fighting. In the total wars of the Twentieth Century civilians were involved in conflict as never before. Millions of men and women were recruited into the services and into essential manufacturing industries. With the advent of aerial warfare and the bomber, civilians found themselves directly in the firing line, viewed as legitimate targets for attack.

The role of the civilian in war was recognised in the collections of the Imperial War Museum from its very foundation. At the official opening of the Museum at Crystal Palace in 1920 the Chairman of the Museum, Sir Alfred Mond, stated in his speech that he hoped that '...every individual, man or woman, sailor, soldier airman or civilian who contributed, however obscurely, to the final result, may be able to find in these galleries an example or illustration of the sacrifice he made or the work he did and in the archives some record of it.' The Museum continues to collect material relating to the role of civilians in both World Wars and in more recent conflicts involving Britain and the Commonwealth.

During the First World War significant numbers of women were recruited into war work for the first time. Their contribution in Britain - particularly in nursing, in the manufacture of munitions, on the land and in transport - is well documented across the collections. This is largely due to the work of the Women's Work Sub-Committee, set up by the Museum's founders in 1917. Most of the written material they acquired is available for study on microfilm. It forms a valuable source of information on all aspects of women's work during the First World War. The art works of Anna Airy and Evelyn Dunbar also provide a vivid visual record of women's war work in the first and second world wars respectively. For both world wars, the Museum has recruitment posters, publications and films that illustrate the methods and images used to recruit civilians, and women in particular, into war work as well as women's own written or spoken recollections of their war service.

All the collections contain extensive holdings concerning the impact of wartime shortages of food, goods and other household items on civilians and the invasive effect on people's lives of increased legislation and government controls. The Museum holds a large number of primary and secondary sources on rationing schemes, life in wartime Britain in general and on civilian conditions in the other combatant nations during both world wars and in recent conflicts. Other valuable sources of information on government campaigns to limit civilian consumption of food and other raw materials are posters and promotional films. The Museum has many excellent examples.

Civilians in Britain were intrinsically involved in preparations for war, both to protect them from air attack and to enable them to resist any invasion. The Museum has rich holdings on Britain's evacuation scheme, both within this country and overseas, for children, their parents and hosts. The tragic loss of the evacuee ship SS City of Benares in the Atlantic in 1940 is well documented, particularly in letters and diaries and in oral history interviews.

The drive to recruit civilians in Britain for Civil Defence duties is illustrated through recruitment posters appealing for volunteers to work in Air Raid Precautions (ARP) or with the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS). There are also numerous examples of the equipment issued to civilians to protect them in case of air raids - gas masks, stirrup pumps and air raid shelters - together with uniforms and equipment issued to those serving in Civil Defence and the Local Defence Volunteers (later known as the Home Guard). Government information films and publications dating from the mid 1970s are useful sources on the threat to civilians in the nuclear age.

Living under fire is another aspect of the civilian experience of war in the Twentieth Century. The experience of civilians in Britain is well covered by the collections. There is material relating to the Zeppelin and Gotha raids of the First World War, but the real strength lies in our holdings on the German air attacks on Britain in 1940 - 1941, particularly the Blitz on London, and the V1 and V2 attacks in 1944 and 1945. Wartime diaries detail the daily realities of living with the threat of air attack. There are outstanding collections of photographs showing Londoners sheltering from the bombing in the Underground and other deep shelters provided in the city during the Second World War. Official war artists recorded the results of air attack and depicted scenes of devastation in the bombed cities.

The civilian experience of air attack elsewhere in Europe during the Second World War is also documented. For example there are interviews with survivors of the controversial air raid on Dresden in February 1945, and film and photographs of raids on other German cities.

The impact on civilians of invasion, occupation and oppression is also documented in the Museum. In particular, there are interviews with refugees from the Nazis, and other items such as their letters and personal effects have been preserved. Diaries and amateur films shot by civilians in occupied countries show how their lives were affected and the covert efforts of civilians to defy their oppressors. The efforts of Resistance movements in occupied countries are recognised, as is the bravery of the Allied agents who assisted them, many of whose gallantry awards are preserved here. Artworks and photographs record the experience of civilians, and particularly refugees, during more recent conflicts.

Published works held in the collections cover the historical debate over the impact of total war and the degree to which fundamental changes in society were brought about or at least accelerated by the conditions of war. The Museum has a significant collection of European political posters. These form a powerful visual record of the revolutionary impact that war had on many European countries and their civilian populations.