Poem ~ Artistic Soldiers - Monday, 10 January 1916

Source: File: Design image for the Artists Rifles badge.jpg. [online] An original image is available at: <http://1914centenary.com/2014/03/11/exhibition-focuses-on-artists-rifles-in-the-first-world-war/> [Accessed: 10 January 2016]

While the path into war

Leads to destructivity,

Any escape from war

Can lead to creativity.

The proof of the pudding

Appeared in recruiting,

Of nearly thirty artists

To join their named corps.

The Artists Rifles doing

Their bit, used their talents

For field sketching, to devise

Invaluable map reading.

Furthermore their abilities

Were arranged to be shown;

To be members of the Officer

Training Corps Exhibition.

For three weeks only, over

A London period, between

Saturday 15 January, to end

Saturday 5 February 1916.

The corps first muster-rolls

Had formed by Lord Leighton

And Val Prinsep - to use time

Between brushes and rifles.

Reflecting the immediacy

Of ongoing attrition, a public

Would be able to see black

And white images of war.

Enameling, etching, water

Colour and oil paintings -

Alongside sculptured images

Were to be on exhibition.

In talent like Lord Leighton,

Who had designed the Rifles

Badge - Although all images

Were subjected to censors.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1916. Soldier Artists' Exhibition. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 10 January 1916. P.4. Col.5. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12083285/Daily-Telegraph-January-10-1916.html [Accessed: 10 January 2016].

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 10 January 2016). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12083285/Daily-Telegraph-January-10-1916.html

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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Poem ~ Art For The Wounded - Tuesday, 14 September 1915

Impression sketch of Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Porter

- by Jamie. See original at: http://thirdlondongeneral.blogspot.co.uk/2010_03_01_archive.html

Already with military

History as an orphanage home,

To daughters of former

Crimean Soldiers, called Royal

Victoria Patriotic Asylum

Built in a gothic style of 1859.

New connections

With war came, August 1914 -

In usage as No.3

London General Hospital

Wandsworth - needs

Saw the grounds expanded.

Lt-Col Bruce Porter,

As Commanding Officer -

Marked as founder

Of Wandsworth's unique

Military Hospital,

Bringing art to the wounded.

Debating with friends

From the Chelsea Art Club,

The subject raised,

Was how those with talent

For art might help -

Exiled from abilities to fight.

For those men limited

By either age or infirmness -

With talents for music,

Art and their writing - taken 
On by Lt-Col Porter -

To assist injury recoveries.

Such artists joined

The Royal Army Medical Corps,

To undertake regular

Duties and as providers of arts -

Including performances

Of shows, three times a week.

Additionally galleries held

Varied art and sculpture displays-

The latter to assist

Medical treatments - to include

Sergeant Wood,

Maker of plaster splints.

Another sculptor,

Professor Wilcoxon aided

Surgeons, in cases

Of anatomical dislocations -

Their abilities proved

Faith of Lt-Col Bruce Porter.

Created by other

Regulars of the Medical Corps

Were works displayed

In recreation huts, for private

Views over two weeks;

To be Tommies Royal Academy.

Lt-Col Bruce Porter's

Belief was to make the London

General, less like any

Hospital - with art as process,

Assisting recovery

For the severely wounded.

 by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. Art and War - Hospital's Unique Staff. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 14 September. P.4. Col.6. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11823051/Daily-Telegraph-September-14-1915.html [Accessed: 13 September 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 14 September 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11823051/Daily-Telegraph-September-14-1915.html

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1London