Army and Navy Auxiliary print case inscribed '9744' containing 85 negatives in total: thirty-seven loose negatives and six original small paper wrappers each containing groups of negatives, some inscribed by Arthur Martin Leake (AML) with directions for his sister Isabel (Bella), who organised printing the 'films' he developed at various Dressing Stations near the front. The loose negatives in this print case include images of soldiers and officers, shelled buildings and dressing stations, many closely relating to each other. They are in no particular order, and are dated here to various episodes and locations in Belgium and the Pas de Calais during Winter 1914 to Summer 1915. None of the historic buildings photographed by AML on the Western Front survived the war; for many these are rare records.
Images include:
5 Field Ambulance: Derelict farm buildings (images 03-04) in use by 5 Field Ambulance with medical officers or orderlies, sandbagged windows, and stretchers propped beside the door; two close-ups possibly of medical orderlies (images 33, 35) beside the same door; new graves beside farm buildings (image 05), perhaps 5 Field Ambulance's burial ground, attended by British soldiers; the nearest grave inscription, left, appears to read '...2nd Royal Sussex/killed in action at...,'; the battalion fought at the First Battle of Ypres; and Bailleul, on the railway line, showing a chaplain holding his camera (perhaps the setting of image 15).
Vieille Chapelle, Pas de Calais: The interior of the shelled church of Vieille Chapelle, north-east of Bethune (images 24, 26), with remains of tower and nave columns, and looking east towards the wrecked high altar with a Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) officer standing among rubble; the same church tower seen behind a row of farm buildings, with a group in British uniform (image 31); farm buildings behind a shelled tree (image 06); and a drawbridge, seen still intact, also at Vieille Chapelle (image 07). A letter of 15 March 1915 records 'a few films taken some time ago at Vieille Chapelle.'
Cuinchy, Pas de Calais: Several negatives associated with Cuinchy: the roofless church of S. Pierre at Cuinchy (images 19, 23, 25) with the telegraph system erected by BEF, an advertisement for Chocolat Menier, and British soldiers approaching; a distant block perhaps identifiable as the notorious Cuinchy brickstacks (image 34) beyond barbed wire and bleak fields. In a letter of 23 March 1915 AML wrote: 'I enclose some films; they are taken about Cuinchy & show the church etc…' Nearby, beyond the canal, is the distillery, Crepin Freres, of Givenchy-Lez-La-Bassee (images 36-37).
Several views of unidentifiable ruined town buildings (images 18, 21), three with French soldiers (images 08, 20, 22), two with French cavalrymen, their brass helmets camouflaged (images 14, 16), and two British (images 13, 17).
No. 1 Harley Street: AML's letter, 1 April 1915, refers to photographs of 5 Field Ambulance's Dressing Station at No. 1 Harley Street, the name alluding to four similar medical posts on the same road near Cuinchy. Close to the front and destroyed by German artillery on 28 April 1916, the house is identifiable in eight negatives: with an ambulance in front and a load of sandbags (image 27); viewed from beyond protective boards and earthworks (image 28); with Highlanders, in canvas overalls over kilts, digging a trench close to the wall (image 29); AML and a medical orderly standing at the entrance gate, beside an identifying sign (image 30); in the distance beyond barbed wire, showing the outline of Crepin Freres in Givenchy in the far distance to the right of the house (image 32); and with an orderly and medical officer (image 39). AML writes in the same letter, 1 April 1915, 'The trenches all have names here, mostly called after London streets. I sent you a photo of Marble Arch the other day' (image 38). (See also RAMC/793/28/6 for Captain Carter's three reciprocal photographs of AML at No. 1 Harley Street).
Bishop of Khartoum: On 23 December 1914 AML had just arrived at Locon, near Bethune and noted the arrival of the outstanding new chaplain, Right Revd. Llewellyn Gwynne, Bishop of Khartoum. Letters held at Hertforshire Archives record their subsequent friendship. Bishop Gwynne moved away in July 1915 when he was promoted to Deputy Chaplain-General in France. AML's letter of 23 March 1915 refers to photographs of the Bishop, including one of him in a trench near 'Harley Street' known as Hertford Street (image 12); other photographs taken in trenches apparently at the same period with Highlanders (image 10) and British Light Infantry (image 09). On 7 April 1915 AML thanks his sister Isabel (Bella), reporting the Bishop's pleasure in his copies, especially 'the one in Hertford Street'; and on 10 May 1915 thanks for further copies made for the Bishop, presumably those taken in a garden, very likely at the nearest town, Bethune (images 11, 72-73).
Pale blue wrapper containing twenty-two negatives, the first of Captain Carter, RAMC, who commanded 5 Field Ambulance from late November 1914, the remaining being of Ypres and surroundings, and groups of officers, dateable to late 1914. Images consist of:
Ypres: AML's photographs of medieval buildings of this strategic landmark of the Western Front record damage from first attacks by German shells during the First Battle of Ypres, 19 October-22 November 1914; by 1918 little more than rubble remained. The Cloth Hall (images 46, 60-63), then one of Northern Europe's most significant Medieval secular buildings, after weeks of shelling was gutted by fire 22 November 1914; interior shots of the Cathedral of St Martin (images 47, 58-59, 64) depict the results of a shell crashing through the roof; and there are further shots of Ypres' ruined streets (images 45, 49).
Medical Officers: two formal groups of six medical officers with chaplain (images 53-54) correspond to the first prints mounted in AML's Great War album (held at Hertfordshire Archives), suggesting a date soon after AML's acquisition of the camera (by 26th October 1914). These officers were probably AML's 5 Field Ambulance colleagues at that time. A colleague, mounted (image 45); and a straight road lined with armoured vehicles and military personnel (images 44, 48), the view suggesting the Menin Road looking towards Ypres from the direction of Hooghe near the front line; the RAMC officer on the far right also appears in another photograph (image 56).
Bailleul: Several fellow RAMC officers in British Army official-issue goatskin jerkins, probably at Bailleul in December 1914 (images 50-52, 57); colleagues formally dressed, posing with a chaplain on the same muddy cabbage patch as those in goatskin jerkins, certainly on the same occasion (image 56). (See also Captain Carter's photographs, RAMC/793/28, which include an extensive line-up of ambulances, officers and men, similarly dressed in goatskins, inscribed 'No 5 Fd Amb in snow & mud at Bailleuil in Dec 1914.' Officers' names inscribed by Carter on the back include Carter in the centre but not AML, presumably either behind the camera or on leave).
Cream paper wrapper containing one negative showing two medical officers identifiable as colleagues from 5 Field Ambulance (image 68), probably late October 1914.
Orange paper wrapper inscribed '4 films to be enlarged'. Images include the chaplain, Rt. Rev. L.H. Gwynne, Bishop of Khartoum (images 72-73), one with AML and Captain Carter, taken in a town garden in April 1915 (see AML/3 (image 3) for a print of this negative); and Captain Carter holding his camera outside No.1 Harley Street, their Dressing Station since March, near Cuinchy (images 74-75). (See also RAMC/793/28/6 for reciprocal photographs of AML, taken by Carter at No.1 Harley Street.)
Orange paper wrapper inscribed '6 films to be printed', the first of five unknown civilians, the remaining of the ruined church at Givenchy (or Givenchy-lez-La Bassee) and a ruined street likely to be in Givenchy. In a letter of 1 April 1915 (held at Hertfordshire Archives) AML wrote, 'Am sending some more photo films - There are some of a place called Givenchy - It is a total wreck and you will see all that remains of the church and how the graves have been opened up.'
Orange paper wrapper inscribed '5 films, 3 prints of each' containing nine negatives of mounted RAMC officers and men. Includes an equestrian event for other ranks (image 89), of kind commonly held behind lines; and two of AML (images 88, 95). AML wrote in a letter of 26 June 1915, 'Am sending some films today. The number of copies I should like to have are marked on each packet. There is one of self on a horse. This animal we picked up on the Aisne in Sept. last - he had a bit of shell in his thigh & was in a bad way. I removed the bit of shell & nursed him sound & you will see now what a fine beast he is…'; other mounted officers recognisable as AML's colleagues of 5 Field Ambulance, three of whom can be named from Captain Carter's print from AML's negative (image 96), inscribed on reverse: 'Wylie Rankin Escott / left to right /No 5 Fd Amb. BEF' (see also RAMC/793/28/6). The setting is perhaps the same, well behind the lines, as described in letter, 24 May, 'this is perfect peace here, & there is a fine large wood to go riding in.' Earlier, 28 April-2 May, he wrote from Bethune, 'the woods around here are beautiful & full of nightingales which sing like anything.'
Grey paper wrapper inscribed 'The Gosselin grave & church yard. Cuinchy' containing six negatives. The Gosselin grave in Cuinchy churchyard held for him a personal significance. Alwyn Gosselin, died aged 31, was the only son of Sir Martin Gosselin, GCVO, KCMG, CB, and distant kinsman, friend and near neighbour at Bengeo Hall, Hertford. AML's concern about his photographs of the grave, records also for Gosselin's widowed mother, is documented in three letters, dated 10 and 23 March, 1 April 1913 (held at Hertfordshire Archives). The inscription on the wooden cross appears to read: 'Here Lies Capt. A.B.R.R.Gosselin, DSO, Grenadier Guards, killed in action[?] near this place[?]. Feb 7th 1915 '. His subsequent grave, with regulation headstone, is in Cuinchy Communal Cemetery, between Bethune and La Bassee, Pas de Calais.