Photographers > David McLellan
(19) L.1208 - Signallers working at the headquarters of R.E.S.S. in France, during World War I
Thumbnail gallery: Grid view | List view
Universal Viewer | 
Mirador | Large image
Images and transcriptions on this page, including medium image downloads, may be used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence unless otherwise stated. 
| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > David McLellan > (19) L.1208 - Signallers working at the headquarters of R.E.S.S. in France, during World War I |
|---|
| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74548966 |
|---|---|
| Description | Just like a team of operators working at a busy telephone switchboard, this image shows the network of communications at company HQ that was required to co-ordinate an army’s activities. The object immediately in front of the signaller on the right looks like a mouthpiece, which suggests that they are using wireless sets or field telephones to communicate. The Royal Engineer Signals Service was formed in 1908, and provided communications during World War I. It was at this time that motorcycle despatch riders, wireless sets and field telephones came into prominence on the Western Front. Towards the end of the war there was agreement that a separate Signal Corps regiment should be established, and the Royal Corps of Signals was established in July 1920. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. H.Q. Signals.'] |
More information
|
|
| Description | Formerly a photographer with the 'Daily Mirror’, a newspaper which led the field in pictorial journalism, McLellan was appointed as an official war photographer in December 1917 along with Tom Aitken whose work also features in this collection. McLellan is especially noted for his work capturing the huge scale of operations on the Front. McLellan was one of five official photographers working on the Western Front, for the propaganda department during the last two years of the war. The photographers were driven to the site the authorities wanted them to photograph, which meant that most of their material was also largely censored. This did not, however, mean that the photographer did not get to know the people in the picture. |
|---|---|
|
More information
|
|
| Description | Photographs by named photographers. |
|---|
| 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. |
|---|---|
| Shelfmark | Acc.3155 |
|
More information
|
|