Photographers > John Warwick Brooke
(484) D.669 - British Tommy felling a tree
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > John Warwick Brooke > (484) D.669 - British Tommy felling a tree |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74547990 |
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| Description | A soldier dressed in 'civvy street’ dungarees cutting down a tree with an axe. In the background stands another British 'Tommy’ wearing his working clothes and looking towards the camera. The effects of deforestation scarred many rural areas during the conflict and, until the trees had been replaced, badly affected the fertility of the land for a number of years. The 'Tommy’ nickname entered into general usage after the Rudyard Kipling poems, 'Tommy’ and 'To Thomas Atkins’ (1892), which pay homage to the sturdy character of the average British soldier. In these poems, Kipling highlights the hypocritical manner in which some members of British society harshly criticised the hard-living character of 'Tommy’ during peacetime, yet lionised that same 'Tommy’ when there was a war on. [Original reads: 'BRITISH OFFICIAL PHOTO FROM THE WESTERN FRONT. British Tommy felling a tree.'] |
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| 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. |
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| Description | Photographs by named photographers. |
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| 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. |
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| Shelfmark | Acc.3155 |
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