Photographers > Tom Aitken
(41) N.446 - French peasant girls grazing cattle chatting to Tommy
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > Tom Aitken > (41) N.446 - French peasant girls grazing cattle chatting to Tommy |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74549062 |
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| Description | French farming girls talking with British soldiers while cattle graze, France, during World War I. This scene shows two French country girls taking a break from watching their cattle to chat with some British soldiers. Both of the young women are dressed in the traditional French country garb complete with bonnet and walking stick. One of the British soldiers is holding on to a bull while it grazes at the side of the road. Revealingly, it appears that most of the history regarding 'the Great War' concentrates on the theatres of war, rather than exploring the civilian viewpoint. This silent chorus of missing civilian voices is especially noticeable in the seemingly under-explored area of how the British troops and French civilians treated one another. It would be interesting to learn what general attitudes existed within these two groups, as they lived close to one another throughout the conflict. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. A wayside scene not far from the line. French peasant girls grazing cattle chatting to Tommy.'] |
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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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