Standing With Giants

I last visited Fort Nelson overlooking Portsmouth Naval Base on this day 5 years ago to see the 14-18 NOW poppy installation. Today it was to see an installation by the Standing With Giants voluntary community project honouring the 255 soldier, sailors and marines and 3 civilians who lost their lives in the 10-week conflict in 1982. As previously, the installation is made more poignant by the surrounding weapons of war (see extra).  

The galleries in the main fort living and office buildings are fascinating to walk round, including Victorian set pieces representing the lives of the soldiers at the end of the 19th century in this fort commissioned by Lord Palmerston as part of a defence from an anticipated, but never materialised, attack from the French. It was disarmed in 1907 and abandoned in the 1950s. It reopened as a museum after restoration in 1994 and is now part of the Royal Armouries and houses their collection of artillery.