Extraordinary images spark search for the World War I Scots

For some Tommies, it could well have been their last.

They were among countless British, Commonwealth and French troops who, in precious time away from the brutality of the Western Front, posed for pictures at the same outdoor studio in the small town of Albert in Northern France.

Faces etched with the stress of war, there are few clues as to who they may have been other than small handwritten signs at their feet giving away the most basic of information: ‘Dundee lads’, says one, ‘Glasgow’s Own R.E.’ says another.

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One, which shows a group of 11 men wrapped in thick furs to protect against the bitter winter, reveals them to be D Company, 16th HLI, thought to be men from the so-called ‘Boy’s Brigade Battalion’, given its name because of the number of ex-members from Glasgow’s BB companies.

They would soon find themselves embroiled in an infamous and desperate fight for their lives, that would leave their numbers hugely depleted.

In another, a trio in kilts strike a defiant pose: one young man is seated, the two others – perhaps brothers or uncles – on either side, resting protective hands on his shoulders.

The images have been collected by a group of historians who have now issued a call for Scots to search drawers, hunt old photo albums and check precious keepsakes in the hope that more may be out there, waiting – almost 110 years since the Great War began - to be found.

The images are particularly interesting as British troops were forbidden from taking their own photos for fear of giving away their location to the enemy.

Instead, perhaps anxious to capture something to send back to loved ones, hundreds made the pilgrimage to the same photography studio in the small French town to be snapped with their brothers in arms, friends and, no doubt, family.

Usually their images were captioned simply “Somewhere in France”.

Yet, in an apparent act of defiance to the censors, the groups are often photographed with a distinctive scene in the background: Albert’s shelled Basilica of Our Lady of Brebières, with its broken Golden Virgin statue hanging precariously from its bell tower.

Damaged during the Battle of Albert in 1914 by Germans who believed the French might use the tower as an observation post, legend stated that when the statue eventually fell, the war would end.

One historians leading the search for more of the images, Robin Schafer, said such a familiar scene in the background suggests the troops and the photographer were actively thumbing their nose at the censors, unafraid of revealing their locations. 

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The images have been gathered by Mr Schafer and fellow historians, Professor Peter Doyle and Taff Gillingham after they realised each had similar images of different groups of soldiers in their collections.

According to Mr Schafer, there are certain tell-tale signs in the photographs, taken between 1915 and 1917, which link them to the same photographers’ studio in Albert, halfway between Amiens and Bapaume and at the heart of the Somme.

They include distinctive cobbles or tiles on the floor, the ‘Somewhere in France’ signs, wooden chairs and stools which appear in many images, a creased fabric backdrop and seized German ‘Picklehaube’ helmets which some troops are pictured wearing.

The area saw some of the war’s fiercest fighting: the Battle of the Somme, which lasted from July to November 1916, saw one million out of the three million men who fought in the battle either wounded or killed.

It resulted in British and French forces penetrating just six miles into what had been German-occupied territory.

Among those involved were the men of 16th Battalion HLI, formed in 1914 in response to Kitchener’s call to arms.

The battalion suffered grievous losses on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, while on the last day three platoons, including around 60 men of D Company, ended up stranded in Frankfurt trench, behind enemy lines.

With the enemy having spotted them and efforts to rescue them thwarted, the ‘Boy’s Brigade battalion’ had to battle for their lives in appalling conditions for eight days.

Despite atrocious losses, they refused to surrender. By the time Germans stormed the trench, just 15 wounded men were still alive.

They were taken as prisoners of war, only for three to die in captivity – one shot by a German guard for accepting a loaf of bread from a French woman.

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Military historian Mr Schafer found a collection of the images stashed in a German soldier’s photo album.  

He said: “There must be more of these photographs out there, we just need people to look for them.

“There were so many regiments that were routed through Albert.

“We know there was a photographers’ studio there, and it makes it one of the instances where we can pinpoint the location and time to a certain place and specific photographer.

“That makes it really interesting – these photographs are special.”

Few images exist of British soldiers so close to the heat of battle, he added.

“When the war began, British soldiers were able to take photographs. But the Christmas truce of 1914 was a PR disaster.

“Soldiers sent pictures of themselves fraternising with the enemy to the press in Britain, and as a result rules were put in place to forbid soldiers taking photographs on the frontline.

“So 90% of the pictures from Britain are of soldiers away from the frontline, in fancy photo studios wearing polished shoes and clean uniforms and flashy settings.

“Albert, however, is just a few hundred metres from the frontline. Troops went to town for a rest, to scrub up, to drink and do what other young men might do.

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“These photographs are of troops who have just arrived from battle, their faces are caked with mud, they’re carrying their weapons, their uniforms are dirty and scruffy.

“There is one of Canadian troops who look like actors from a Hollywood movie: they are fantastic.”

The historians say they hope that they might be able to find relatives of men in the photographs and find more images, opening up the possibility of exhibitions to mark next year’s 110th anniversary of the outbreak of the war, and even recreating images at the studio site with descendants of the soldiers.

“We have around 40 images at the moment,” said Mr Schafer, “but we know there must be many more out there.

“If we can get them together, we can do more research – there may be some photographs that have names on the back, or families might be able to tell us something about who is pictured and what happened to them.

“We are pretty sure we know where the house was that the photographs were taken. It no longer exists but the garden is there so, potentially, we could bring relatives of the men in the photographs back to where they once stood.

“The photographs are packed with fascinating details that tell us so much – there must be hundreds more in drawers and cupboards and in photograph albums.”

Do you have similar images? Contact Robin Schafer at: rob@war-and-more.com