The Gustav Holst Birthplace Museum will be opening a new exhibition next month, giving visitors the chance to learn about Holst’s experiences during the First World War.

‘Gustav Holst’s WW1: With the Salonika Forces’ will tell the story of Holst’s work during the Great War when he taught music to soldiers in Salonika and Constantinople. The exhibition, which opens on July 10th, will include letters, diaries, photographs and archive film, as well as a reconstruction of Holst’s own room in the Salonika YMCA.

Laura Kinnear, curator at the museum, has recently returned from Greece where she learned more about Holst’s time spent with the soldiers there during the Great War. She said: “I recently experienced a Salonika battlefield tour which was organised by the Salonika Battlefield Society. The tour was led by a gentleman from the Imperial War Museum who spoke in great detail about the soldiers that Holst would have been teaching. We also found the building where Holst stayed – the YMCA in Salonika, now known as Thessaloniki – which was very exciting.

“When it comes to opening the new exhibition, we’ll have quite an extensive display of letters that Holst wrote to his wife and daughters while he was over in Greece. We’ve got several of his diaries and notebooks that will be on display in the museum. We’re also going to recreate his office that he worked from in the YMCA.”

“There will also be an extensive events and activity programme which will help to interpret the theme for visitors. To place Holst’s role in a wider context there will be a special outdoor exhibition of 25 hand-printed letterpress posters of the 25 men from Cheltenham who died in Salonika.

In more exciting developments, the museum recently announced two eminent musicians have shown their support for Holst’s former home. Jeff Wayne, best known for his composition ‘The War of the Worlds’ and Adrian Partington, Director of Music at Gloucester Cathedral, recently accepted the invitation from the museum to become patrons. Laura said: “It’s great news for the museum to have two well-known musicians show their support. Jeff and Adrian have made a significant contribution to Britain’s musical landscape, we’re very pleased to have their support.”

Located just a 5-minute walk from Cheltenham High Street, the Holst Birthplace Museum has been carefully restored and refurbished as it would have been during Holst’s childhood in the 1870s. Holst, composer of the legendary ‘Planets Suite’, was born in the house on Clarence Road on 21st September 1874.