This digitised material is free to access, but contains information or visuals that may:<ul><li>include personal details of living individuals</li><li>be upsetting or distressing</li><li>be explicit or graphic</li><li>include objects and images of objects decontextualised in a way that is offensive to the originating culture.</li></ul>By viewing this material, we ask that you use the content lawfully, ethically and responsibly under the conditions set out in our <a href="https://wellcomecollection.cdn.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/d4817da5-c71a-4151-81c4-83e39ad4f5b3_Wellcome+Collection_Access+Policy_Aug+2020.pdf">Access Policy</a>.

You must accept the terms to view the content.

Prints and negatives relating to the First Battle of Ypres, near Zonnebeke, with 5 Field Ambulance

item

Galleries and Reading Room

Café

Shop

Library

Our galleries are quietest on weekdays and weekend mornings. At busy times, particularly on Saturdays, you may need to queue for our temporary exhibitions.

We’re undertaking some research with website visitors to learn more about how people find access-related information provided by museums. This survey shouldn't take longer than 10 minutes to complete. Thank you for your time!

Help us organize our website content.

Army and Navy Auxiliary print case inscribed '9672' containing twenty-two negatives and twenty-two prints; twenty of each of these correspond. The first two prints do not have corresponding negatives here: The first print is of the chaplain Rt. Rev. L. H. Gwynne, Bishop of Khartoum, with Arthur Martin Leake (AML) and Captain Carter, April 1915 (image 3; see AML/2 (image 72) for the corresponding negative), and the second is of AML (left) and two recognisable colleagues from 5 Field Ambulance sitting around a stove. This print was evidently taken from another camera, and is unique also for being the only interior shot in the collection (image 4). Its location may be identifiable from AML's letter from Ypres, 18 November 1914, 'We are just now living in the bar room of a little pub.' 
 The remaining twenty prints and negatives were almost certainly all taken in Ypres Salient, where AML spent most or all of the First Battle of Ypres; many at or near AML's Advanced Dressing Station, established late October 1914 at the White House, Zonnebeke, c.500 yards from the trenches at the furthest point of the Ypres Salient. A number were evidently taken during the days cited officially for the award of a Bar to the Victoria Cross, 29 October-8 November 1914. The earliest possible date for these photographs is 26 October 1914, when AML acquired the camera at St Jean (dateable from a letter held at Hertfordshire Archives). On 12 November 1914 5 Field Ambulance was ordered to leave after heavy shelling of the White House, by then already frequently shelled, notably on 5 and 9 November.' 
 The photographs include a striking sequence of five images of the White House and horse ambulances drawn up before it, taken before and after the heavy shelling. Captain Carter appears in one of those taken before the event; the visible results of the subsequent shelling include a foreground crater and a dead horse (image numbers 31-32, 37-39). These scenes must date from the days quoted in the citation for AML's second award of the Victoria Cross, and show the Dressing Station around which those gallant acts took place. Other photographs include the neighbouring brickworks' chimney (image numbers 27-28), the latter including the distant tower of Zonnebeke church; a passing column of British cavalry (image 43); British soldiers with horse-drawn transport (image 45); French soldiers and horse-drawn transport (image 46), a dead horse apparently in the foreground. Most photographs include recognisable colleagues from 5 Field Ambulance (including images 25-26, 29-30, 34, 40-42) and two include AML (images 25 and 42); many are also of groups of French or Belgians digging trenches, alone (images 33, 35-36, 44) or in the presence of officers from 5 Field Ambulance. In one photograph (image 30), with two Belgian or French medical staff on the right, trenches suggest the proximity of the front line, as does a camouflaged gun in another photograph (image 42). The trench digging may relate to AML's letter of 6 November, '...we have shelter pits to go to in the day time when they begin to shell.' Snow is a reminder of the bitter cold endured (images 25-26, 33-34), and a makeshift tent (image 34) suggests this was at the time the unit's sole shelter. This may have been on 13 November, the day following the shelling of the White House, when AML wrote, 'We have had to shift our dressing station & just at present have not got another…'

Wellcome uses cookies.

Prints and negatives relating to the First Battle of Ypres, near Zonnebeke, with 5 Field Ambulance

Licence and re-use

Wellcome uses cookies.

Content advisory

Prints and negatives relating to the First Battle of Ypres, near Zonnebeke, with 5 Field Ambulance

Licence and re-use