To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the American War of Independence, a new exhibition has opened this August at Books on the Rise in Richmond, highlighting its surprising links to Surrey.

'How We Lost America' takes a fresh look at the dawn of American Independence through a British lens 250 years after delegates began officially signing the Declaration of Independence in August, 1776.

A series of banners informed by satire, newspapers and little known letters of the time, reveal how these new-born ideas of liberty and equality set a democratic precedent for the rest of the world and raise important questions today as to how they continue to be used and abused.

Visitors to the exhibition will discover how Surrey's influence on the American Declaration of Independence runs through military service, legal tradition, and the personal experiences of the Founding Fathers. Troops from the 1st and 2nd Royal Surrey Militia fought in the American War of Independence, while Surreyborn LieutenantGeneral William Tryon served in the regiment later renamed the 70th (Surrey) Regiment of Foot. Far more significant, however, was the legacy of the Magna Carta, sealed at Runnymede in 1215, which established the principle that the monarch was bound by law — a foundation stone of English common law and a central pillar of Thomas Jefferson's argument for selfdetermination. Sir Edward Coke's reinterpretation of this tradition shaped the legal education of Adams, Jefferson, and Madison, and fuelled colonial claims to "English liberties," invoked repeatedly during the revolutionary crisis. Massachusetts revolutionaries even placed the Magna Carta on their official seal, a symbol of liberty drawn directly from Surrey's soil. Surrey also touched the personal lives of America's founders: Jefferson and Adams toured its estates in 1786, finding inspiration in its landscapes and agricultural innovation, while George Washington's ancestor, Colonel Henry Washington, lies buried in RichmonduponThames. These threads weave Surrey into the intellectual, military, and symbolic fabric of America's struggle for independence.

'How We Lost America' runs from 2^nd August to 21st September 2026 at Books on the Rise, 80 Hill Rise, Richmond, London TW10 6UB. A series of talks by historians and a play reading will run alongside the exhibition. Check aurorametro.org.uk/how-we-lost-america-events for details.