Photographers > John Warwick Brooke
(205) D.1750 - Sorting mail on the roadside
Thumbnail gallery: Grid view | List view
Universal Viewer | 
Mirador | Large image
Images and transcriptions on this page, including medium image downloads, may be used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence unless otherwise stated. 
| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > John Warwick Brooke > (205) D.1750 - Sorting mail on the roadside |
|---|
| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74547176 |
|---|---|
| Description | This photograph was taken from the top of an embankment at the side of the road looking down upon those on the road. Three soldiers are grouped around a line of packages which are laid out half-way up the slope. One of the soldiers is closely inspecting the labels while the other two chat with him. The mud on the road is wet and churned and the road is fenced in with white stumps spaced at intervals. There is a truck travelling away from the scene in the background and there are more soldiers walking down the road. There are also soldiers lying at the top of the slope on the same level as the photographer. John Warwick Brooke is thought to have taken this everyday snapshot. Deliveries of mail could often be sporadic- this picture illustrates the informality of much system- and trying to find soldiers who were often on the move could prove difficult. Despite this, mail was often the only contact with home and friends, and so was important to the individuals concerned. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT. Sorting mails on the roadside.'] |
More information
|
|
| Description | John Warwick Brooke, of the Topical Press Agency, was the second British official war photographer to go to the Western Front in 1916. The demands placed on he and his colleague, Ernest Brooks, were heavy. They had to take as many photographs as possible, with as much variety as possible, a difficult task for two men covering an army of over two million. Despite this, Warwick Brooke managed to take what would become some of the most memorable images of World War I. As an officially appointed photographer, Warwick Brooke was assigned to the Western Front to follow the progress of the British Army. During his time there, between 1916 and 1918, Warwick Brooke is estimated to have taken over 4,000 photographs. |
|---|---|
|
More information
|
|
| Description | Photographs by named photographers. |
|---|
| Description | Black-and-white photographs mainly of the Western Front during the First World War. Official British war photographers took many of them for propaganda purposes. Unless otherwise stated, titles are the photographs' original captions. From the papers of Field Marshal (Earl) Haig (1861-1928). The Haig Papers also contain Douglas Haig’s diaries. |
|---|---|
| Shelfmark | Acc.3155 |
|
More information
|
|