Welcome to my blog, where I take pleasure in words and pictures, be they my own or those of others. I'm a creative individual, and the crafty side I explore on my 'other blog', Picking Up The Threads, which I hope you'll visit too. I'm sure you understand that I have sole copyright of my original work and any of my contributions, so please ask if you want to use them. A polite request is rarely refused. So, as they used to say on the BBC's 'Listen With Mother' radio programme, many years ago: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin."

Thursday 2 January 2014

Along For the Ride

This photograph has already played a minor rôle in a previous blogpost, 'The Black Pepper is Very Pungent’ where I wrote about the Indian troops in the First World War. I was very taken with the casual pose of the soldier with his foot on the running board, and the wounded Indian soldier leaning towards him as if to adjust his collar, brush away an imaginary crumb or hand him a tip. Perhaps he is trying to catch the soldier’s attention to make a point, but I do wonder why he is so innatentive when everybody else is clearly looking stratght at the camera! The 1915 photograph, taken by H.D Girwood (1978-1964), comes from the British Library collection via Wikimedia Commons. The charabanc would only trundle along at 12 M.P.H apparently so it would be a gentle jaunt and very appropriate for convalescents who were out for a breath of the Bournemouth sea air. Our photo prompt for this week’s Sepia Saturday is a convoy of tourist vehicles of some kind from the Royal Australian Historical Society collection via Flickr, and reminded me of this charabanc used by the Mount Dore hospital.


And here is another line of vehicles preparing to set off. This is a supply column waiting to load at the railway in the same year as the above. Please click on this link to view the image through the wonderful British Library manuscript viewer which allows you to home in on the tiniest detail.


The last image, from that same British Library collection, shows a uniformed Maharajah (on 2nd August 1915) with a convoy of ambulance cars. Again, click on this link  to view the microscopic details. Not such a merry jaunt as the walking wounded at Brighton, nor the tourists in Australia but it fits the bill as far as answering the call for this week’s theme.


For more more jolly jaunts jump aboard the Sepia Saturday bus number 209, and head straight for 2014 and a full year of sepia surprises.

22 comments:

  1. Super old photos of this era of transport and interesting info too.

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  2. An interesting selection of photos & information. I tried the links & they really do render the pictures exceptionally clear when enlarged to see all the detail.

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  3. Very interesting stuff. My own family were in India at the time, and somewhere we had some albums with photos a bit similar. I wish I could find them. I thought they never threw anything away in that house, but the albums did not turn up when it was cleared.

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  4. Oh and Happy New Year! I look forward to more of your posts in 2014.

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  5. Wonderful photographs illusrtating aspects of transport history.

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  6. I can see you (us) using a lot more of the British Library collection for events during WWI in the next 5 years.

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  7. Love these photos and your descriptions.

    Dee
    dee-burris.dreamwidth.org

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    1. So far you win my prize (purely imaginary) that you have photos most in tune with this week's theme. Maybe more will be coming that I haven't seen yet. Thanks!

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  8. Happy New Year! Yet again a fabulous stories and pictures. You've so much varying and interesting topics to give!

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  9. At the time the cars still in their infant shoes, but look well built. Most of the time it was still horse and carriage. I am amazed that they already used all these cars in the first world war.

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  10. That caught my attention immediately as well. It's as if the wounded man said something to the soldier because he's got a bit of a half smile, or grin may be more accurate. A curious thing in many ways.

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  11. The first photo is such an interesting image I had to look up some of its history. The Mont Dore was a hotel in Bournemouth that was converted to a hospital for Indian troops when their casualties began to overwhelm the other improvised hospitals. The charabanc was probably appropriated from the hotel. The Indians were Sikh, Hindu, and Muslim so preparing meal time must have been challenge.

    This quote came from a fascinating website of another hospital for Indian troops in Brighton:
    http://www.sikhmuseum.com/brighton/index.html
    >> Sepoy Ranga Singh, a patient at the Lady Hardinge Hospital, Brockenhurst, complained that: ‘There is no fireplace. We are not given milk…It is very cold. We have to call the nurses “mother” and the European soldiers “Orderly Sahib” - if we do not we are reported. The five Brighton hospitals are good. The others are not good. We are not given soup. We get nothing.’ <<

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    1. I was wondering about the story behind the photo. Thank you for finding and sharing it.

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  12. It does seem strange to see one man leaning out of the vehicle in the first picture.

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  13. It's amazing how beautifully clear and detailed these photos are. Thanks.

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  14. A very happy new year Marilyn. First of all, thanks for the link to the British Library images, they are wonderful quality. I also see that they have just released 1,000,000 images onto Flickr Commons which is great news and should give us all sorts of scope for theme images. I will send you an email so we can discuss our programme for 2014. Alan

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  15. I haven't read much about the role of the Indian people in WWI, it seems people think only the Europeans and Americans were involved.

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  16. Truly wonderful photos! And I was surprised that the autos and trucks were all so clean. Must have been early in the day.

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  17. It feels like I'm watching a world war movie with this post. :)

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  18. The number of ambulance cars forces you to stop and think about the good people ever ready to help and the poor souls in need of help.

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  19. Little Nell these are just beautiful photos. All the more poignant for being 100 years old and as we launch into this anniversary of The Great War. I like that the chap in the first photo is leaning down. He provides a focus and a line of enquiry. Probably everybody was cross with him at the time for ruining the photo but I think it is marvellous. I am bursting with curiosity to know what he wanted. I think he is impressing upon the young man the importance of something - but what? Being home in time for Downtown Abbey? Who can say?

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