Photographers > Tom Aitken
(32) N.425 - Goalkeeper between the sticks
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > Tom Aitken > (32) N.425 - Goalkeeper between the sticks |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74549044 |
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| Description | French soldier defending his goal during a football match, in France, during World War I. Guarding his goal of two wooden poles connected by a length of rope, this French soldier takes his mind off the horrors of war with a relaxing game of football. Standing behind the goal is a group of mainly French soldiers, though several British (wearing darker uniforms) 'Tommies' are also included. Sporting matches such as this were very popular with the troops, as they interrupted the rigmarole of normal army life and also helped to raise morale. One of the most bizarre football matches ever played took place in no-man's land near the French village of Laventie on Christmas Day 1915. Someone, somehow, produced a football and an impromptu kick about then took place. The football lasted for half an hour until a furious British major arrived on the scene and ordered the British troops back to their trenches. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. Big football match between British and French goalkeeper between the sticks.'] |
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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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