Photographers > David McLellan
(20) L.1211 - Signallers inside headquarters of R.E.S.S. in France, during World War I
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > David McLellan > (20) L.1211 - Signallers inside headquarters of R.E.S.S. in France, during World War I |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74548968 |
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| Description | Two signals engineers hard at work on the company’s phone system, in a room just like the inside of a telephone exchange. Judging by the numerous lines and large quantity of equipment in the room, this HQ certainly appears to house quite a complicated network of communications. It is likely that a system of field telephone lines, radio wireless sets and motorcycle despatch riders linked the front line with this company HQ. The two soldiers in this photograph would have been members of The Royal Engineer Signals Service. The R.E.S.S. was formed in 1908, and provided communications during World War I. It was at this time that motorcycle wireless sets, field telephones and despatch riders, came into prominence on the Western Front. Near the end of the war there was agreement among the general staff 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.'] |
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| 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. |
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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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