Photographers > Tom Aitken
(7) N.382 - Two swans well known to the Tommies in a certain area in France: midst pretty surroundings
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > Tom Aitken > (7) N.382 - Two swans well known to the Tommies in a certain area in France: midst pretty surroundings |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74548992 |
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| Description | British soldier standing beside a lake with two swans, France. Photographs of wildlife are not something that appear very often in images from the Western Front. So this idyllic photograph of a British soldier apparently feeding two swans, forms an unusual and peaceful image from 'the Great War’. Judging from the text included on the original caption for this photograph, it appears that these two swans were familiar and popular neighbours with the troops stationed in this region, perhaps even being adopted as unofficial regimental mascots. One can well imagine the level of destruction that the monstrous guns on the Western Front must have inflicted upon wildlife in the areas of fighting. In addition to the shell damage, the effects of deforestation - in France and back in the UK - must also have caused significant damage to the environment in general, and wildlife in particular. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. Two swans well known to the Tommies in a certain area in France: midst pretty surroundings.'] |
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| Description | Tom Aitken was a newspaper photographer from Glasgow who was assigned in December 1917 as a war photographer along with David McLellan and Armando Consolé. McLellan's work also features in the National Library of Scotland’s Haig Papers. War photographers held a hybrid position during World War I, being part of yet not ultimately responsible to the military. |
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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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