Shell Refashioned Into a Vase.

'Trench art' describes objects made from the debris and by-products of modern warfare. It is most often associated with the First World War. Decorated shell cases are perhaps the most common type of trench art. Most trench art was made by servicemen to pass the time when not in the front line. Prisoners of war, faced with a constant battle against boredom, produced similar items. Examples of trench art were also made by local civilians for sale to soldiers. This industry continued after the war, with trench art-type objects being created as souvenirs for the visitors to battlefields and cemeteries.

Westfield College Magazine advertisement for vacation and land work, May 1917.

A 'War Club' was formed by Miss Sergeant, a history lecturer, with the mission of 'thinking' and 'doing'. Members discussed problems of post war reconstruction, and during the vacations carried out fruit picking and other land work, such as sweeping snow from the Hampstead streets, in order to earn money for the Red Cross. They also dispatched letters and parcels to prisoners of war.

Image Courtesy of Queen Mary University of London Archives.

Moonrise on the Somme, by Percy Smith from the Drypoints of War series, 1916-1919.

Taking place between July and November 1916, the Battle of the Somme was one of the largest of the First World War with more than 1 million men wounded or killed.

Image Courtesy of Percy Smith Foundation

Dugout Fires, by Percy Smith, 1916-1919.

Image Courtesy of Percy Smith Foundation.

The Prisoners, by Percy Smith from the Drypoints of War series, 1916-1919.

Image Courtesy of Percy Smith Foundation.

Fuel to Dugout, by Percy Smith, 1916-1919.

Image Courtesy of Percy Smith Foundation.

The Corner Cottage at Beaumont Hamel, by Percy Smith, 1916-1919.

Image Courtesy of Percy Smith Foundation.

The Long and Winding Way, by Percy Smith from the Drypoints of War series, 1916-1919.

Percy Smith served until 1919 in France and Belgium as a gunner and experienced trench warfare. He was not an official war artist, so he had copperplates sent to him, concealed in magazines. He used them to make etchings from sketches made on the front line.

Image Courtesy of Percy Smith Foundation.

Fifteen-Inch Howitzer, by Percy Smith, 1916-1919.

Percy Smith experienced the newest most powerful naval gun, the 'fifteen inch Howitzer'۪, popularly known as 'Granny'. His attempts at sketching the gun were met with opposition and he was reported to his superiors as such sketches were 'suspicious'۪ and considered to be tantamount to a spying activity. Successive appeals at last reached General Aston, himself interested in etching, and Percy was allowed to continue unofficially.

Image Courtesy of Percy Smith Foundation.

From the 'Life of a Field Telephonist' a series of 6 postcards by Fritz Lindshoeft, 1917.

Field telephones were first used in the First World War to direct troops. They replaced flag signals and the telegraph as an efficient means of communication. The first field telephones had a wind-up generator, used to power the telephone's ringer and batteries to send the call, and call the manually operated telephone central.

Images Courtesy of Queen Mary University of London Archives.