The Lost Tommies

The Lost Tommies
Ross Coulthart

‘Lost Tommies’ brings together never-before-seen images of Western Front tommies and their amazing stories in a beautiful collection that is part thriller, part family history and part national archive.For much of the First World War, the small French village of Vignacourt was always behind the front lines – as a staging point, casualty clearing station and recreation area for troops of all nationalities moving up to and then back from the battlefields on the Somme. Here, one enterprising photographer took the opportunity of offering portrait photographs. A century later, his stunning images were discovered, abandoned, in a farm house.Captured on glass, printed into postcards and posted home, the photographs enabled soldiers to maintain a fragile link with loved ones at home. In ‘Lost Tommies’, this collection covers many of the significant aspects of British involvement on the Western Front, from military life to the friendships and bonds formed between the soldiers and civilians. Beautifully reproduced, it is a unique collection and a magnificent memorial.

Copyright (#ulink_7b786911-c3a3-5a95-8a23-5e2a74e826ca)

William Collins

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WilliamCollinsBooks.com (http://WilliamCollinsBooks.com)

This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2016

Copyright © Ross Coulthart 2016

Ross Coulthart asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Cap badges reproduced with permission of the MOD.

Photographs by North East Medals.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins

Source ISBN: 9780008103316

Ebook Edition © May 2016 ISBN: 9780008110390

Version: 2016-03-09

Contents

Cover (#u3d0dfd50-1ae1-58a9-9490-c957182b5622)

Title page (#ud9876f4e-1ad8-5e29-bd26-ba615a47afc2)

Copyright (#ulink_f07e6b98-927d-547d-b258-7420aa61f88d)

Prologue (#ulink_b3800ccf-a9c6-517f-a383-9f2d9a9e7f10)

The Origins of ‘Tommy’ (#ulink_08e2bd96-36cb-5507-94e3-a3610b9696e0)

Part One THE DISCOVERY (#ue54b0a79-43ca-5208-bca1-6e08569443bd)

Finding the Thuillier Photographic Plates (#ulink_ea529315-a1b7-5fc1-b372-4c5331978a85)

Identifying the Tommies (#ulink_4549e615-c0dd-5cac-b49d-439bb1cabde7)

The Backdrop (#ulink_04001017-c784-58b4-8593-cb0d3ba114e6)

The Vignacourt Bread Boy (#ulink_ca74dace-b78f-5da5-859a-0793f4d3ae99)

How the Thuilliers Took Their Photographs (#ulink_54c7e85b-3321-585b-8be9-a5c963ae77eb)

Louis and Antoinette Thuillier and the Town of Vignacourt (#ulink_9f4d2f71-b265-5010-b7e8-fdfa848815ab)

Identifying British Regiments (#ulink_dc3009ed-7728-5e02-b927-0c3addf77781)

We Are Seven (#ulink_adff988b-cd79-5eeb-b503-ae17554b9789)

The War (#ulink_f071fcf2-6d4d-51f4-a16a-f29176f7d693)

Part Two THE TOMMIES (#u5a513e09-f9fa-539d-9d1a-a853a9e0282b)

York and Lancaster Regiment (#ulink_79207bc6-dff5-53d8-b9c2-950f84f44d28)

The Prince of Wales’ Own West Yorkshire Regiment (#litres_trial_promo)

The Battle of the Somme – July (#litres_trial_promo)

The Pals (#litres_trial_promo)

The Leeds Rifles (#litres_trial_promo)

The Liverpool Pals (#litres_trial_promo)

The Stretcher-bearers (#litres_trial_promo)

The Stretcher-bearer (#litres_trial_promo)

The Durham Light Infantry (#litres_trial_promo)

Shot at Dawn (#litres_trial_promo)

The Bantams (#litres_trial_promo)

Faithful in Adversity – the RAMC (#litres_trial_promo)

The Fusiliers (#litres_trial_promo)

Military Police (#litres_trial_promo)

The Suicide Club (#litres_trial_promo)