Photograph of Northumberland Fusiliers in the trenches, 1915

The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Traditionally, infantry soldiers fought on foot, in contrast to cavalry, who fought on horses.

During the First World War, the Northumberland Fusiliers raised or created 52 battalions. A battalion is a sub-group within a regiment which usually contains 300-1000 soldiers.

As the name suggest, the Northumberland Fusilisers were the local regiment and many men from Northumberland joined the Fusiliers (although that wasn’t always the case!).

This collection of images documents their everyday lives in the trenches during the First World War. Although soldiers were not really allowed to take cameras into the trenches, many did. The advances in photographic technology meant that cameras were smaller than they had ever been before. In 1897 Kodak produced the Folding Pocket Kodak; a camera that could (as the name suggests) fit in the pocket. In 1901 the Box Brownie was first sold by Kodak. The Box Brownie was a very simple camera that could be bought cheaply and marked the beginning of photography for the masses.

More photographs from this collection can be seen on the Northumberland Archives Flickr stream (please see below).

This shows an officer with the Northumberland Fusiliers standing up to his knees in mud. The environmental conditions in Northern France and Belgium often made living in the trenches difficult and hampered the fighting.

Captain Neville was killed in 1917. Information about his death and memorial can be found here:

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/157294/R%20P%20NEVILLE/

This photograph has obviously been set up for the camera, but construction and repair of trenches probably took up a lot of their time. It looks as if these soldiers might be standing by a dug-out (curtain to the left of the picture) and the materials used to construct the trench (sandbags, wood) can clearly be seen.

It seems likely that these men were not near the front as they are standing up straight and could probably be seen over the top of the trench.

A label on the back of this photograph reads: ‘Cookhouse party. Trench 74, second support, 20 Aug. 1915’. Support trenches were behind (and often parallel to) font-line trenches. They were connected by communication trenches that ran at right-angles to the support and front-line trenches (see Long Long Trail website for a diagram.)

Soldiers would spend time in the support trenches before being moved into the front line and then would be given periods of rest and training away from the trenches. Soldiers did not spend more than a few weeks at a time living the trenches.

The materials used to construct the trench can clearly been seen here (wire mesh in the wall of the front, sand bags, wood). The “fire step” can also be seen. For more on the construction of trenches see Long Long Trail website (link below) and Andy Robertshaw video (link below).

The soldier in the centre of the photograph is holding a rifle with bayonet attached. The soldier to the left is using a periscope to see over the top of the trench. See Empire Faith War link below for template and instructions for making a periscope.

Each battalion was divided into “companies” of about 50 men, under the command of a lieutenant.

The sandbags and duckboards under Cowen’s feet can be seen clearly in this photograph. He is wearing wellington boots. It is likely that he is writing notes for a report (but it could be suggested that he’s writing a poem!)

The dug-out in this photograph was most probably the regimental aid post where injured men could go for first aid. The structure is made of sandbags and has a material cover (tarpaulin) that could be pulled down over the door opening.

The man in the right of the picture is wearing an armband with the initials “SB”. This shows that he was a stretcher bearer. Each battalion had a number of stretcher bearers who would carry the injured. Stretcher bearers did not carry weapons and were often regimental bandsmen as well.

See Medicine in the Trenches section of online resources.