John Hassall RI (1868 - 1948) - British artist

Sketching at a Red
Cross fund raiser 1918

Born in Walmer, Kent, UK on 21st May 1868, John's parents were Christopher Clarke Hassell a Royal Naval Officer,. and his wife, Louisa Sparkes.   

Educated in Worthing at Newton Abbot College before going on to Neuenheim College, Heidelberg, Germany, John emigrated to Canada with his brother Owen in 1888, after failing to gain entry to Sandhurst Military Academy . He returned to London two years later when he had drawings accepted by the “Graphic” a British weekly illustrated newspaper. At the suggestion of Dudley Hardy (along with Cecil Aldin, a lifelong friend), he went to study art in Antwerp and Paris. During that period he was influenced by the famous poster artist Alphonse Mucha.

In 1895 John began working for David Allen & Sons designing advertisements, which developed into a 50-year career. He also produced a large number of volumes of fairy tales and nursery rhymes.  

In 1900 he opened his own New Art School and School of Poster Design, in Kensington, but the school had to close at the outbreak of the First World War.

Examples of John Hassell's WW1 work:

A poster urging people to help Belgium.

A Tank in Action
Now in the British Tank Museum 

Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore (1870–1955) - Welsh-born American artist

Arthur was born on 25th December 1870 in Bodalog, near Betws-y-Coed, Wales, the second son of Captain Francis Sandys Dugmore and his wife, Emily Evelyn, a daughter of William Brougham, 2nd Baron Brougham and Vaux.  His father served in The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada before his birth, and later in the 64th Regiment of Foot.  

Educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, and later in Kadıköy and Bournabat (in modern day Turkey), Arthur went on to study art at the Instituto di Belle Arti in Naples, Italy and went to America in 1889. In 1901 he married  Henrietta Louise Watkins, and the couple had three children.

Forty two years old when the First World War began, as a civilian photographer Arthur travelled to the Western Front and began recording with his cine camera, as the Belgian army attempted in vain to stem the advance of the German Army. 

Influential friends helped Arthur "to obtain a commission in an infantry regiment — the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry" -The 'Tykes'.   Arthur served in the trenches during the period leading up to the First Battle of the Somme but before the Battle he was gassed and unfit for duty. He wrote from the front lines during this period describing trench warfare, the Somme attack and its consequences and aftermath. 

Arthur recorded his WW1 eye-witness experiences in a book entitled “When the Somme Ran Red: The Experiences of an Officer of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry During the First World War.”

Arthur later created a number of paintings based on his recollections of experiences on the Somme.

Troops Going over the Top, First World War (Battle of the Somme)

                 Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore (1870–1955)       Painting from York Castle Museum

Henry Taylor Lamb MC RA (1883 – 1960)

Henry Lamb self portrait

Henry Lamb was born in Adelaide, Australia, on 21st June 1883.  He was the son of Sir Horace Lamb FRS, professor of mathematics at Adelaide University. When Sir Horace was appointed to the Chair of Mathematics at the Victoria University of Manchester in 1885, the family moved back to England. 

Henry was educated at Manchester Grammar School, before studying medicine at Manchester University Medical School and Guy's Hospital in London. He abandoned his medical studies in 1906 to study painting at the Chelsea School of Art, which, at that time, was run by William Orpen and Augustus John. 

In 1907, Henry went to Paris to study at the Académie de La Palette - an art academy where stidemts were taught by artists Jean Metzinger, André Dunoyer de Segonzac and Henri Le Fauconnier.

When war broke out in 1914, Henry returned to his medical studies and qualified as a doctor at Guy's Hospital.  He saw active service in the First World War in the Royal Army Medical Corps as a battalion medical officer with the 5th Battalion, The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and was awarded the Military Cross. 

Henry served in Palestine and on the Western Front and was badly gassed not long before the end of the war. In February 1918, before he was demobilised, Henry was approached by British War Memorials Committee of the Ministry of Information to produce a large painting for a proposed national Hall of Remembrance. After he was demobilised in March 1919, Lamb began work on the painting, "Irish Troops in the Judaean Hills Surprised by a Turkish Bombardment", which is now in the Imperial War Museum. 

Henry died on 8th October 1960.

Two of his paintings are:  Advanced Dressing Station on the Struma in  1916, 1921 

and

Irish Troops in the Judaean Hills Surprised by a Turkish Bombardment (1919), (Art.IWM ART 2746)

With thanks to AC Benus for finding this artist for us.

"Parade of the Dead" by Georges Bertin Scott (1873 - 1943) - French artist and war correspondent

 "Parade of the Dead" by Georges Bertin Scott (10 June 1873 – 10 January 1943) - a French war correspondent and illustrator for the French magazine "L'Illustration".  With thanks to Ciarán Conlan for finding this image and to to Seosamh McGabhann who suggested I look up the poem by Robert Service entitled “The March of the Dead” to accompany this image.

"The March of the Dead" by Robert Service 

 The cruel war was over -- oh, the triumph was so sweet!

     We watched the troops returning, through our tears;

 There was triumph, triumph, triumph down the scarlet glittering street,

     And you scarce could hear the music for the cheers.

 And you scarce could see the house-tops for the flags that flew between;

     The bells were pealing madly to the sky;

 And everyone was shouting for the Soldiers of the Queen,

     And the glory of an age was passing by.

 And then there came a shadow, swift and sudden, dark and drear;

     The bells were silent, not an echo stirred.

 The flags were drooping sullenly, the men forgot to cheer;

     We waited, and we never spoke a word.

 The sky grew darker, darker, till from out the gloomy rack

     There came a voice that checked the heart with dread:

 "Tear down, tear down your bunting now, and hang up sable black;

     They are coming -- it's the Army of the Dead."

 They were coming, they were coming, gaunt and ghastly, sad and slow;

     They were coming, all the crimson wrecks of pride;

 With faces seared, and cheeks red smeared, and haunting eyes of woe,

     And clotted holes the khaki couldn't hide.

 Oh, the clammy brow of anguish! the livid, foam-flecked lips!

     The reeling ranks of ruin swept along!

 The limb that trailed, the hand that failed, the bloody finger tips!

     And oh, the dreary rhythm of their song!

 "They left us on the veldt-side, but we felt we couldn't stop

     On this, our England's crowning festal day;

 We're the men of Magersfontein, we're the men of Spion Kop,

     Colenso -- we're the men who had to pay.

 We're the men who paid the blood-price. Shall the grave be all our gain?

     You owe us. Long and heavy is the score.

 Then cheer us for our glory now, and cheer us for our pain,

     And cheer us as ye never cheered before."

 The folks were white and stricken, and each tongue seemed weighted with lead;

     Each heart was clutched in hollow hand of ice;

 And every eye was staring at the horror of the dead,

     The pity of the men who paid the price.

 They were come, were come to mock us, in the first flush of our peace;

     Through writhing lips their teeth were all agleam;

 They were coming in their thousands -- oh, would they never cease!

     I closed my eyes, and then -- it was a dream.

 There was triumph, triumph, triumph down the scarlet gleaming street;

     The town was mad; a man was like a boy.

 A thousand flags were flaming where the sky and city meet;

     A thousand bells were thundering the joy.

 There was music, mirth and sunshine; but some eyes shone with regret;

     And while we stun with cheers our homing braves,

 O God, in Thy great mercy, let us nevermore forget

     The graves they left behind, the bitter graves.

- Robert Service

 

Robert William Service (1874 – 1958) – British-born Canadian Poet, who joined the Ambulance Corps of the American Red Cross and served as a Stretcher Bearer during WW1  -

“… a people’s poet” Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph of Sept. 16, 1958

Find our more about him:

https://forgottenpoetsofww1.blogspot.com/2019/04/robert-william-service-1874-1958.html

https://forgottenpoetsofww1.blogspot.com/2019/05/who-wrote-ww1-poem-stretcher-bearer.html