Photographers > Tom Aitken
(29) N.420 - British, French and American soldiers seated with W.A.A.C.s on the sands watching French kiddies building sand castles
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > Tom Aitken > (29) N.420 - British, French and American soldiers seated with W.A.A.C.s on the sands watching French kiddies building sand castles |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74549038 |
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| Description | Soldiers and WAACs watching French children playing in the sand, in France, during World War I. This photograph brings together men, women and children from several countries, as they relax in their deckchairs and watch some French children build a large sandcastle. As the image contains soldiers from Britain, France and the USA, plus some members of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC), it would make the perfect image to illustrate how the Allies were all pulling together to achieve victory. Established in January 1917, The WAAC was a voluntary service for British women. The organisation was formed because the War Office felt that too many soldiers who could be fighting were doing 'soft’ jobs. So members of the WAAC started working in France as clerks, telephonists, waitresses and cooks, thereby releasing more men for active service. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. On the coast in France. British, French and American soldiers seated with W.A.A.C's on the sands watching French kiddies building sand castles.'] |
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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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