Photographers > Tom Aitken
(40) N.445 - British Tommy interests himself in the happiness of the kiddies on the sands at a French coast resort
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > Tom Aitken > (40) N.445 - British Tommy interests himself in the happiness of the kiddies on the sands at a French coast resort |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74549060 |
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| Description | French children playing with a British soldier on a beach, France, during World War I. Dressed in the long and stripy swimsuits that were traditional in this era, these French children are enjoying playing in the water with a British soldier. After taking part in fighting at the front line, this peaceful experience of playing around with children on a beach at a French resort, may have been a rather strange feeling for the soldier involved. Apart from the chilling stories concerning the atrocities that German troops were alleged to have committed at the start of the war, most of the history regarding 'the war to end all wars' tends to focus on the theatres of war, rather than exploring the civilian viewpoint. This chorus of missing civilian voices is especially noticeable in the seemingly unexplored area of how the British troops and French civilians treated one another, and it would be interesting to learn what general attitudes existed within these two groups, especially what French children thought about the war and soldiers. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. A British Tommy interests himself in the happiness of the kiddies on the sands at a French coast resort.'] |
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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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