Composite photograph showing Baron de Cosson, Harold Arthur Lee-Dillon, and Sir Guy Laking

Early Scholars

The origins of the study of arms and armour lie in the efforts of a small group of 19th and early 20th century gentlemen scholars. Today the field has grown wide in its appeal, from the university trained academic, to the enthusiastic re-enactor.

Within these pages you can gain an insight both to the scholarship and the lives of those early scholars and from our Online Object Catalogue order copies of many of their works.

Scary Horned Helmet

View our Top 10 objects

Did you know?

Is newer always better?

The last cast-iron British smoothbore cannon, the 68 pounder, was the same calibre [eight inches or 152 mm] as the heaviest guns of King Henry VIII three hundred years earlier. Their performance was probably not very different either!

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