Photographers > Tom Aitken
(49) N.463 - British Intelligence sergeant questioning a stranger in the deserted streets of a French town
Thumbnail gallery: Grid view | List view
Universal Viewer | 
Mirador | Large image
Images and transcriptions on this page, including medium image downloads, may be used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence unless otherwise stated. 
| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > Tom Aitken > (49) N.463 - British Intelligence sergeant questioning a stranger in the deserted streets of a French town |
|---|
| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74549078 |
|---|---|
| Description | British Intelligence Corps officer quizzing a stranger, in France, during World War I. A sergeant from the British Intelligence Corps checking the identity details of a man in a French town - possibly the town of Bethune, in Picardie. The 'IC' letters on the sergeant's armband clearly identifies him as belonging to the Intelligence Corps. Despite the pressing need for intelligence during a war, it was not until 1905 - after the Boer War - that the British Army started drawing up plans to from an Intelligence Corps. From 1914 onwards the newly formed Intelligence Corps began co-ordinating its intelligence gathering skills. Although the Intelligence Corps achieved many successes during the war, they were disbanded after the Armistice as it was believed their services were only required during wartime. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. A British Intelligence Sergeant questioning a stranger in the deserted Streets of a French town.'] |
More information
|
|
| 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. |
|---|---|
|
More information
|
|
| Description | Photographs by named photographers. |
|---|
| 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. |
|---|---|
| Shelfmark | Acc.3155 |
|
More information
|
|