Photographers > Tom Aitken
(27) N.413 - Messenger dog base just behind the line
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > Tom Aitken > (27) N.413 - Messenger dog base just behind the line |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74549032 |
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| Description | Messenger dogs on parade outside their kennels, in France, during World War I. Messenger dogs and their handlers stand beside some kennels close to the front line. Rolled up messages placed inside waterproof containers would have been attached to the collars of these dogs, as they moved between units in the front line trenches. Adopting a pet as regimental mascot also helped to maintain the morale of the soldiers, by adding a touch of domestic home life to the trench where the dog was stationed. It was the famous Battersea Dogs' Home in London that provided the army with recruits for its unit of messenger dogs. Following their recruitment, the dogs were then trained at The War Dog Training School in Shoeburyness, England. Once their training was finished, the dogs were stationed in kennels in Etaples, France, before being posted to regiments for front line service. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. A messenger dog base just behind the line.'] |
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| Description | Tom Aitken was a newspaper photographer from Glasgow who was assigned in December 1917 as a war photographer along with David McLellan and Armando Consolé. McLellan's work also features in the National Library of Scotland’s Haig Papers. War photographers held a hybrid position during World War I, being part of yet not ultimately responsible to the military. |
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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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