Inventories of war: soldiers' kit from 1066 to 2014
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On a winter’s day in 1915 the family of one
Capt Charles Sorley – athlete, soldier and poet – received a package. It was
his kit bag, sent home by his regiment from the Western Front, where Sorley had
been killed, aged 20, at the Battle of Loos. Out of this bag came a life
abridged: personal effects, items of uniform and a bundle of papers, from which
emerged his now famous sonnet When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead. A
new photographic survey of military kits now illustrates that curious
combination. The photographer Thom Atkinson has recorded 13 military kits for
his ‘Soldiers Inventories’ series.
1916 private soldier,
While the First World War was the first
modern war, as the
Picture: THOM ATKINSON
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1066 huscarl, Battle of Hastings
‘The Anglo-Saxon warrior at
Picture: THOM ATKINSON
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1244 mounted knight, Siege of Jerusalem
Re-enactment groups, collectors, historians
and serving soldiers helped photographer Thom Atkinson assemble the components
for each shot. ‘It was hard to track down knowledgeable people with the correct
equipment,’ he says. ‘The pictures are really the product of their knowledge
and experience.’
Picture: THOM ATKINSON
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1415 fighting archer, Battle of Agincourt
Having worked on projects with the Wellcome
Trust and the
Picture: THOM ATKINSON
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1485 Yorkist man-at-arms, Battle of
Bosworth
‘There’s a spoon in every picture,’
Atkinson says. ‘I think that’s wonderful. The requirement of food, and the
experience of eating, hasn’t changed in 1,000 years. It’s the same with warmth,
water, protection, entertainment.’
Picture: THOM ATKINSON
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1588 trainband caliverman, Tilbury
The similarities between the kits are as
startling as the differences. Notepads become iPads, 18th-century bowls mirror
modern mess tins; games such as chess or cards appear regularly.
Picture: THOM ATKINSON
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1645 New Model Army musketeer, Battle of
Naseby
Each kit represents the personal equipment carried
by a notional common British soldier at a landmark battle over the past
millennium. It is a sequence punctuated by Bosworth, Naseby,
Picture: THOM ATKINSON
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1709 private sentinel, Battle of Malplaquet
Atkinson says the project, which took him
nine months, was an education. ‘I’ve never been a soldier. It’s difficult to
look in on a subject like this and completely understand it. I wanted it to be
about people. Watching everything unfold, I begin to feel that we really are
the same creatures with the same fundamental needs.’
Picture: THOM ATKINSON
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1815 private soldier, Battle of Waterloo
Kit issued to soldiers fighting in the
Battle of Waterloo included a pewter tankard and a draughts set.
Picture: THOM ATKINSON
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1854 private soldier, Rifle Brigade, Battle
of Alma
Each picture depicts the bandages, bayonets
and bullets of survival, and the hooks on which humanity hangs: letter paper,
prayer books and Bibles.
Picture: THOM ATKINSON
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1944 lance corporal, Parachute Brigade,
Battle of Arnhem
Each photograph shows a soldier’s world
condensed into a pared-down manifest of defences, provisions and distractions.
There is the formal (as issued by the quartermaster and armourer) and the
personal (timepieces, crucifixes, combs and shaving brushes).
Picture: THOM ATKINSON
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1982 Royal Marine Commando,
From the cumbersome armour worn by a
Yorkist man-at-arms in 1485 to the packs yomped into
Picture: THOM ATKINSON
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2014 close-support sapper, Royal Engineers,
The evolution of technology that emerges
from the series is a process that has accelerated over the past century. The
pocket watch of 1916 is today a waterproof digital wristwatch; the bolt-action
Lee-Enfield rifle has been replaced by laser-sighted light assault carbines;
and lightweight camouflage Kevlar vests take the place of khaki woollen Pattern
service tunics.
Picture: THOM ATKINSON
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