The first items of the Durham Light Infantry Collection were donated in 1924.
The collection now contains over 15,000 objects, 4,000 medals & over 34,000 photographs.
The DLI Friends group was first launched as a registered charity in 1976 to:
“purchaseimportant Regimental relics and research material which may disappear overseas or otherwise be lost to the County, and to help in the preservation and display of the many items in the collection.”
Since those early days the DLI Friends have become much more ambitious and now also help support the education of school pupils about the County’s military links and service.
Join our community of enthusiasts, scholars, and supporters. With your help the Friends will help to safeguard the heritage of the Durham soldier and the values for which he fought and died.
KEEP the memories alive
Help the Collection thrive
The DLI Friends is a charity run for, and by, people who support and work with, the DLI Collection. With the recent opening of “The Story”, the new home of the DLI Collection and other County archives, there has never been a more exciting time to become involved as a DLI Friend
Latest News
The Morant sword
Three generations of the Morant family had served in the 68th Regiment and the succeeding Durham Light Infantry Regiment, so there was much of DLI interest. HHS Morant had, among other army appointments, commanded the 10th Battalion DLI in WW1. Though many items were purchased for the DLI Collection not all were won. HHS Morant’s sword, for example, went at that time to a sword collector in the USA.
On the 31st October 2024 the DLI Friends group met to present the DLI Collection with that sword. It had appeared again and Sid Patterson of the DLI Friends purchased it at auction on behalf of the group. In doing so the DLI Friends were fulfilling the original purpose for which the group was founded – to acquire items for the DLI Collection.
