Trench Art

In Memory of

WILLIAM, MATTHEW, JAMES & JACK,

all of whom fought and survived

First published in Great Britain in 2001 by Leo Cooper

This second edition published in 2011 by

Pen & Sword Military

an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright © Nicholas J. Saunders, 2001, 2011

ISBN 0-85052-793-7

Digital Edition ISBN: 978-178346-123-3

The right of Nicholas J. Saunders to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Typeset in Palatino

Printed by CPI UK

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Wharncliffe Local History, Pen and Sword Select, Pen and Sword Military Classics, Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Publishing.

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact

PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED

47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England

E-mail: enquiries@pen-and-sword.co.uk

Website:www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

Contents

ACKOWLEDGEMENTS

PREFACE

ABOUT THIS BOOK

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I WHAT IS TRENCH ART?

The Meanings of Trench Art

CHAPTER II TRENCH ART, A CLASSIFICATION

Categories of Trench Art

Category 1: Soldiers, 1914-1919

Sub-category 1a: Active Service

Sub-category 1b: Prisoners of War

Sub-category 1c: The Wounded

Category 2: Civilians, 1914-1939

Sub-category 2a: 1914-1918

Sub-category 2b: 1919-1939

Sub-category 2c: 1914-1919

Category 3: c.1918-c.1939

CHAPTER III THE ART OF SHELLS

The Birth of the Shell

The Makers and Their Techniques

Styles and Decoration

CHAPTER IV THE WORLD OF METALS

Writing Equipment

Smoking Equipment

Jewellery, Minatures and Miscellanea

The Victoria Cross

CHAPTER V WOOD, TEXTILES AND BONE

Woodwork

Textiles

Bone and Miscellaneous

CHAPTER VI THE SOCIAL WORLDS OF TRENCH ART

Landscapes of Metal

Trench Art as Souvenirs

Trench Art in the Home

Trench Art as Art

CHAPTER VII TRENCH ART TODAY

Trench Art and Museums

Epilogue

The Market for Trench Art/Price Guide

Sources of Quotations

Websites

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

In a book such as this there are, inevitably, many people from all walks of life who have generously given their help and advice, criticism, encouragement, company, and rare insight. A full list of how each person has aided my research would be a chapter in itself, and so I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks equally to all of the following who, each in their own way, made this book possible.

Paul Cornish (Imperial War Museum), Peter Liddle (Liddle Collection, The Second World War Experience Centre), Jenny Spencer-Smith and Oliver Buckley (National Army Museum), and the curators of innumerable Regimental Museums throughout the United Kingdom who kindly responded to my letters, questionnaires and requests for photographs. Marion Wenzel (Bosnia-Hercegovina Heritage Rescue, London and Sarajevo), Peter Doyle (University of Greenwich), Jay Winter and John Carman (Cambridge University), Jeremy Coote and Marius Kwint (Oxford University), Mark Dennis (Museum of the United Grand Lodge, London), John Schofield (English Heritage), Danny Miller, Suzanne Küchler, Hugh Clout, Mike Rowlands, Christopher Tilley, and Barbara Bender, all at University College London, Annette Becker (Paris X Nanterre), Thomas Compère-Morel and Marie-Pascale Prévost-Bault (L’Historial de la Grande Guerre, Péronne), Peter Aitken and Jane Peek (Australian War Memorial, Canberra), Mark Derez (Katholick University, Leuven), Franky Bostyn and Johan Vandewalle (Association for Battlefield Archaeology in Flanders, Zonnebeke), Aleks Deseyne (Atlantic Walls, Raversijde, Ostend), Jan Dewilde (Stedelijke Museum, Ieper), Chatham Dockyard Historical Society, Marie-Monique Huss (University of Westminster, London), and Peter Taylor.

Also, Gil Goutsmit (Ostend), Roger Lampaert (Zillebeke), Gabriel Versavel (Passendale), Senior Captain A. Vander Mast (Langemark-Poelkapelle), Lieutenant Colonel L. Deprez-Wouts (Ieper), John Woolsgrove and Christine De Deyne (The Shell Hole, Ieper), Alain and Wilma Bouten (The Protea, Geluvelt-Zonnebeke), Philipe Oosterlinck, Joe Lagae, Roger De Smul (Hooge), Jacques Schier (Hill 62), Rik Ryon (Proven), Ivan Sinnaeve (Sint-Jan), Laurie Farrow (Messines), Peter Barton, Ken Dunn, James Brazier, Bill Abbitt, Steve Rarity, Ralph Thompson, Angela Kelsall, Bernard Hepton, Christopher Basey, T.M.D. Ball, Jane Kimball, Roy Butler, Paul Hamilton, Stefany Tomalin, Gordon Rae, Pamela Caunt, Jon Price, Bill Chandler, Phil Reeve, Gerry O’Connell, the late Joe Lyndhurst and various others who, at their own request, remain anonymous.

I am especially grateful to University College London for the opportunity to undertake the research upon which this book is based, and above all to The British Academy, for the award of an Institutional Fellowship, which made it possible. I owe a great debt to my wife Pauline and my children Roxanne and Alexander who suffered (or enjoyed) my frequent absences, and the gradual filling up of their home with strange objects. To my parents I am grateful for the various pieces of Trench Art they have acquired for me over recent years.

Obtaining photographs for this book has been its own adventure. Except where stated, all are my copyright (c). Where copyright is mine but permissions were granted by others, this is so noted. I am particularly grateful to Gabriel Versavel for permission to photograph his family collection and to reproduce some of these here, where they are jointly credited to the Versavel Archive.

Finally, I am proud to thank my grandfathers, Alfred William Saunders of the King’s Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster), and Matthew Inkerman Chorley of the South Lancashire Regiment and his brothers James and Jack Chorley, all of whom fought in the Great War and survived, though not without scars. To them, and all the makers of Great War Trench Art I dedicate this book. Ars longa, vita brevis indeed!

Preface to Second Edition

In the decade since the original 2001 publication of this book, the study of Trench Art has been transformed. No longer is it the sole preserve of enthusiastic and knowledgeable collectors. It is now recognized by historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, and museum and heritage professionals, as a significant resource for exploring the experiences of men, women, and children during and after the First World War, and, indeed, all modern conflicts.

The 2001 edition was also the first English-language book devoted to Trench Art. Three earlier publications are a small pamphlet published in Flemish (Vermeulen-Roose 1972); an excellent study of Finnish Trench Art (in Finnish, but with an English summary) (Steffa and Steffa 1981); and an (Italian-language) exhibition catalogue (Fabi 1998). Astonishingly, since 2001, no less than eleven books have been published on Trench Art, accompanied by innumerable articles. The quantity and diversity of publications in the updated bibliography reflect the wide range of new engagements between people and these strangely compelling artefacts.

Of the major books, some are lavishly illustrated, such as Jane Kimball’s encyclopaedic Trench Art: An Illustrated History (2004), and Nicole Durand’s stunning De l’Horreur à l’art (2006). My own Trench Art: Materialities and Memories of War (2003a) takes an academic approach, and Patrice Warin’s three deeply researched and beautifully produced volumes (2001, 2005, 2009) are simply peerless – and demonstrate the vast potential for future research.

The enthusiasm for Trench Art as a subject has also inspired a rich and varied presence on the Internet, over and above the expansion of the militaria trade into this new medium. Many websites are dedicated to exploring the different forms and stories of such objects, almost exclusively from the First World War (see bibliography). Exhibitions too have flourished all over the world, in major museums such as the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, Belgium, the Historial de la Grande Guerre in Péronne, France, and at the University of Tübingen in Germany. Smaller local exhibitions have also taken place across Britain, Canada, and Italy.

Trench Art also now has an intellectual life in academic circles: first, within the vibrant new sub-discipline of ‘Modern Conflict Archaeology’, and secondly, in the more established field of ‘Material Culture Anthropology’. These new approaches explore the ‘social lives’ of Trench-Art objects, and the various ways in which they interact with and define the experiences of those who create, buy, exchange, wear, and display them – during war, and afterwards.

So powerful are Trench-Art objects in representing conflict, memory, and identity that they have played a significant role in the wider reorientation of twentieth-century conflict studies. In 2002, Christian Aid organized an exhibition in London of items created by artists in Mozambique from the decommissioned weapons of that country’s bitter civil war (1976-1992) – one item was bought by, and is now on display in, the British Museum.

In 2003, an exhibition of Freemason Trench Art was held at the Museum of the United Grand Lodge in London (Dennis and Saunders 2003). In 2010, Trench Art made by Chinese labourers during the First World War was exhibited in the In Flanders Fields Museum (see Saunders 2011), and in the same year, Second World War objects made during the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands were displayed in Guernsey (Carr 2009).

Trench Art’s coming of age was marked in 2009 by an international conference held in Ypres, Belgium (Saunders 2009b). Collectors, academics, contemporary Trench-Art makers, and museum professionals came together to discuss and share their knowledge on every aspect of the subject. Today, Trench Art is recognized as an almost universal phenomenon of modern war, and one that demands a sophisticated response in order to unlock the meanings sealed within its seemingly infinite variety of shapes.

About this book

This book is called a brief history and guide – a guide, that is, to historical meanings and significances rather than commercial values. In one sense it has been a long time coming as, to my knowledge, the first edition in 2001 was the first book ever published in English on Trench Art. As with many books on the Great War, there is a personal element – one which involves half-remembered stories of grandfathers and uncles, and visceral images of the war from my own childhood.

My first memories of the Great War of 1914-1918 were of settling down on a Friday night with my maternal grandfather to watch the BBC’s monumental series The Great War during the 1960s. Week after week I watched, fascinated, as boys of my generation often were, at the flickering black and white images of the war – the incredible bombardments, soldiers clambering over the top and young faces grown old before their time, staring blankly into the camera’s eye. Yet, not once during this time do I recall my grandfather making any comment which might have indicated that he had been part of these scenes of carnage and destruction. In fact, like so many of his generation, he never spoke of it at all. He preferred to remember his days travelling the world as a Merchant Seaman after the war. Throughout my childhood my view of him was framed by a photograph on his living room shelf – a dapper young man dressed in white, standing nonchalantly on the deck of HMS Homeric.

Fig. 1: Private Matthew Inkerman Chorley (seated).

Only later, years after his death, did I discover that the splendidly named Matthew Inkerman Chorley had been a private in the 1/5th Battalion of the South Lancashire Regiment. He had fought at the start of the Third