The Early War - Hugh Duval

Photography in 1914 was incredibly ‘ad hoc’. There would be no appointment of an official war photographer until 1915 by any side. Photos like these were often captured by private photographers who were either fighting in the war and carried their own cameras with them, or they were people who were independently documenting the fighting during its period of manoeuvrability.

This photo, captured outside Wellington Barracks shows members of the Irish Guards pre-deployment to the Western Front in August 1914. With woeful foreshadowing, in this image it’s known none of the men pictured here survived the war.

This astounding photo captures Belgian infantry during the general retreat following the Siege of Liege (5th-16th August 1914) sometime during the wider Battle of the Frontiers period (August-September). Belgium’s proportionately smaller army gave stiff resistance to the Germans, who had anticipated an easy walking over the small Low Country.

Much to their dismay this delaying rearguard likely saved the French from capitulation as more resources were consumed in the capture of Belgium than were anticipated.

One of my earliest colourisations, produced in March 2020, showing British riflemen who had come to Belgium’s aid amidst the invasion taking cover behind a hedgerow likely around Ypres during the Race to the Sea, taken 13th October 1914.

The forecourt of the renowned Cloth Hall in Ypres, Belgium; parked outside sits commercial lorries which have been mobilised for service with the British Expeditionary Force during the opening months of the war, this image was taken around the time of the First Battle of Ypres in October 1914.

The German Army was highly mobile during the Battle of the Frontiers (which preceded the Race to the Sea). This image was actually taken during the Battle of Tannenberg (26th-30th August) on the Eastern Front; it is however a good visualisation for the waining manoeuvrability which shortly ended on the Western Front come October.

Taking in rest, pictured here are elements of the Infanterie-Regiment ‘Kaiser Frederich König von Prußen’ Nr.125 somewhere in the Low Countries sometime I would place no later than early 1915. Scenes like these were common, though the faces which made them up became significantly more beleaguered but also above else young as the attrition of trench warfare became more prevalent in the conflict.

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