Photographers > Tom Aitken
(9) N.384 - British Tommy helping a French soldier with his morning wash
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > Tom Aitken > (9) N.384 - British Tommy helping a French soldier with his morning wash |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74548996 |
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| Description | British soldier pouring water for a French soldier, France, during World War I. The 'Entente Cordiale' in action, with a 'Tommy' helping a 'Poilu' to wash up by pouring some water from a jug into a jelly can for him. The French soldiers are easily distinguishable by their 'Adrian' helmets, which were bigger and rounder than the flatter helmets worn by British soldiers. This photograph was probably taken by Tom Aitken, and may well have been used for propaganda purposes. While British soldiers were called 'Tommy', the slang term among the British for a French soldier was 'Poilu', which means 'hairy one'. The nickname 'Tommy' 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. Although the French troops called the German soldiers 'Boche' or 'Bosch', the British troops called the Germans 'Fritz’. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. A British Tommy helping a French soldier with his morning wash.'] |
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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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