Photographers > John Warwick Brooke
(178) D.1553 - Tommies bathing in the pond of a captured farm
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > John Warwick Brooke > (178) D.1553 - Tommies bathing in the pond of a captured farm |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74547912 |
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| Description | Six soldiers are bathing in a large pond. There is some tomfoolery, with one of the men wrestling his comrade. They are all aware of the photographer, most likely John Warwick Brooke, and are looking towards the camera and smiling. The men at the Front were rarely given any time to relax. Opportunities such as this, to momentarily escape the horrors of the war and feel human, would probably have been seized upon by the men. 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. This photograph along with the light-hearted caption is a good example of the type of image often used by the Government and Military as propaganda. It conveyed a sense of fun and camaraderie and, as such, reassured those at home. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT. Some Tommies bathing in the pond of a captured farm.'] |
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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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