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In the summer of 1945, the Second World War came to an end. After Victory in Europe was declared in May, the final surrender of Japan was secured by mid-August. But the British Army’s work was far from over.

Fought between 1642 and 1651, these wars were primarily disputes between Crown and Parliament about how the British Isles should be governed. But they also had religious and social dimensions, and witnessed the creation of the first national standing army.

Between 1839 and 1842, British-Indian forces fought a war with Imperial China that served the interests of opium smugglers. Their resulting victory opened up the lucrative Chinese trade to British merchants.

The Army's influence on fashion is not new. Military dress has made its way from conflict to catwalk over and over again.

In January 1945, the overarching priority for the Army remained winning the war, and – for its soldiers in Europe at least – seeing off the cold, wintry weather.

Ted Senior was captured by the Japanese during the Second World War and forced to work on the Thai-Burma ‘Death Railway'. The diary he kept reveals the horrific conditions that he and his fellow prisoners endured.

The struggle against the Turks in Egypt and Palestine began with a test of endurance and engineering in harsh desert terrain. It evolved into a fast-moving mobile campaign, which resulted in Allied victory and the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

The war against Iraq in 1990-91 saw the largest single deployment of British troops since the Second World War. Altogether, about 35,000 British servicemen and women served in the campaign.

In February 1945, as the fighting continued on all fronts, formal plans began to take shape for how the world would look once the war was won.

Artificial poppies were first sold in Britain in 1921 and have since become one of the main symbols of Remembrance. This Scottish poppy dates from the early days of the Poppy Appeal.

From 1943 to 1945, the Allies fought an attritional campaign in Italy against a resolute and skilful enemy. Far from being the ‘soft underbelly of Europe’, Italy became one of the Second World War’s most exhausting campaigns.

In April 1982, British soldiers joined a naval task force sent to re-take the Falkland Islands after their surprise capture by the Argentine military. They went on to play a key part in the land campaign that helped secure victory in the war.