Photographers > John Warwick Brooke
(566) D.898 - Tommies eating in a trench
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > John Warwick Brooke > (566) D.898 - Tommies eating in a trench |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74548520 |
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| Description | Soldiers is gathered in a small section of trench. In the foreground, one man slices a loaf of bread and another holds a container, possibly filled with soup or stew. Invariably, food arrived in the trenches days after its preparation in the field kitchens and bakeries set up at the Front. As a result, it was often stale and very unappetising. '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. Warwick Brooke is perhaps best remembered for his photographs of the third Battle of Ypres (July-November 1917), otherwise known as Passchendaele. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE WESTERN FRONT. HOW TOMMY IS FED. Tommies eating in a trench.'] |
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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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