Photographers > John Warwick Brooke
(21) D.1053 - Tommies moving a portable forge
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > John Warwick Brooke > (21) D.1053 - Tommies moving a portable forge |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74548396 |
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| Description | Four soldiers are struggling to transport what according to the original caption is a portable forge. Each man is bearing the weight on one shoulder. They are moving across extremely wet and muddy ground. Small strips of wood, far inferior to the lengths of duckboard often used, have been placed on the ground to give some grip. Transporting equipment across muddy terrain, a common occurrence at the Front, was always fraught with difficulties. 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. [Original reads: 'Tommies moving a portable forge.'] |
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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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