Durham Light Infantry (DLI) digital collections

Archive, photographs and records

The Durham Light Infantry archive collection was transferred to Durham County Record Office from the former DLI Museum in 1998. This allowed Record Office staff to catalogue the archives and make them more accessible, both in their search room and online. The archive collection contains detailed descriptions of the records, and images of over 34,000 photographs in the collection.

Durham Record Office holds the collection on loan from the Trustees of the former DLI Regiment. People donate additional archive material to the collection on a regular basis and they also accept Durham Light Infantry records on long-term loan.

Durham County Record Office: DLI archives

Objects collection

The Durham Light Infantry Collection includes uniforms, equipment, weapons, silver, photographs and battlefield relics covering the whole history of the Regiment from its formation in 1758 to the final laying-up of the Colours in 1968 in Durham Cathedral.

Some key objects from the collection can be seen online including rare uniforms of the Durham Militia and Rifle Volunteers.

View the DLI Objects collection.

Medal collection

The DLI medal collection includes six original Victoria Crosses, plus over 3,000 other medals awarded to over 1,000 men who served in the DLI regiment. You can search the majority of this collection online and find out details of these men, including many photographs. If your medal is not listed please contact us.

Search and view the Medal collection. If you want to see individual medals or groups of medals from the collection, you need to book an appointment - see Durham University: DLI medal collection for more information.

Oral histories

Also available is the Listen to the Soldier oral history collection of 200 interviews with veterans who served with the DLI in the Second World War.

Listen to the Soldier interviews.

Courageous Restraint

Courageous Restraint is a collection of the experiences of 3 Rifles from their tour of duty to Afghanistan between September 2009 and April 2010.

View the Courageous Restraint objects collection.

Exhibition Panels

View previous exhibition materials for DLI Stories and The Somme.