Swaggering signallers strike significant poses!
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Where: Unknown
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When: 27 March 1915
Try to find the date or year when this image was made.
Mr. Poole got a commission to photograph this group of soldiers of the Royal Engineers, Signalling Corps, and what a fine group they were. If moustaches are anything to go by, most of the group are a long way short of the standard to compete with the Sergeant!
Photographer: A. H. Poole
Collection: The Poole Photographic Collection, Waterford
Date: ca. 27 March 1915
NLI Ref: POOLEWP 2616a
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
Source: Flickr Commons
Views: 13565
Photographer: A. H. Poole
Collection: The Poole Photographic Collection, Waterford
Date: ca. 27 March 1915
NLI Ref: POOLEWP 2616a
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
Info:
Owner: National Library of Ireland on The CommonsSource: Flickr Commons
Views: 13565
ahpoole
arthurhenripoole
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royalengineers
signallingcorps
britisharmy
1915
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ireland
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ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
27 March 1915 was a Saturday ...
O Mac
What's with the small Poole cues?
sharon.corbet
There's some info regarding the Royal Engineers in Waterford in 1914-1915 in Irishmen or English Soldiers. They left in April 1915.
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/91549360@N03 Niiiiice one but of course they were for swaggering around the Poole table!
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
Is there a tie in with these chaps? The photo is dated April 6th 1915. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/6904634072
Foxglove
as with many of the images, they leave me snookered, apologies for continuing the silly name/ word play. I guess many of these guys were facing a difficult year ahead in ww1
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
Calling https://www.flickr.com/photos/33577523@N08/, come in https://www.flickr.com/photos/33577523@N08/! We need your Waterford barracks expertise...
John Spooner
Waterford, Royal Engineers and Signallers remind me of this photo which led down some fascinating diversions
Carol Maddock
https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnspooner Ah yes, those lovely googleable names (Meyrick Bingham Whistler Smith-Rewse)...
derangedlemur
Wearing 1903 bandolier equipment, it would seem.
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
What about the DOG?
John Spooner
https://www.flickr.com/photos/47297387@N03 That photo led to me reading (almost) the complete works of H C McNeile. His early stuff written from the trenches describing his daily life as a RE officer is well worth reading, but the Bulldog Drummond stuff, while unputdownable ripping yarns, led me to think that if Bulldog Drummond represented McNeile's views, I think if I'd met him we wouldn't have seen eye to eye on many subjects.
DannyM8
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32162360@N00/ Well SPOTTED! 🐕
Rory_Sherlock
Those are riding crops they're holding - Paul O'Farrell mentioned in the comments on the photo of officers in Waterford that a Royal Engineer signalling company would have had about 84 horses, so it makes sense in that context - they are quite long by modern standards though - perhaps they were used by the soldiers when walking alongside horses pulling wagons, or while seated on the wagons, rather than while riding a horse?
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
What are those
fourfive signs on the wall behind (see note)? Mr Poole-Room scratched them out on this version - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000593100Rory_Sherlock
https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia I thought at first glance that they were vent bricks, though they're at an odd level if they are
John Spooner
https://www.flickr.com/photos/47297387@N03 And who can forget Windham Henry Wyndham-Quin, with the same name twice, albeit spelled differently.
Bernard Healy
Note that a few of the men are carrying swagger sticks rather than riding crops. Seemingly that was part of the off-duty uniform for soldiers and NCOs at the time. I'm curious too about the fact that some of them seem to have lanyards(?) on the seam of their left shouders.
O Mac
Looks like the photo was taken at the side of the courthouse, Waterford. This other one of same group was taken at the courthouse. catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000593102/MooviewerImg?mobile... maps.app.goo.gl/YzRpD2wqszfETsaf9
derangedlemur
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/bernardhealy] I was going to say, those seem to be swagger sticks rather than riding crops, which seems unusual. I wouldn't have expected them of this group given that none of them appear to be officers. Riding crops makes more sense. Also are those lanyards? I'd have thought they were braids. Edit: You are correct - they are lanyards: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30101215
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
https://www.flickr.com/photos/91549360@N03 Well (s)potted!
ofarrl
www.flickr.com/photos/91549360@N03/ yes definitely taken at the the Court House. I have a few photos related to the Royal Engineer signal company that was in Waterford around 1915 that might be of interest, this one shows them passing the railway station as they left Waterford.
O Mac
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32162360@N00/ will ye give it a break....
oaktree_brian_1976
This would be early in WW1, wireless sets were still new.
Swordscookie
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bernardhealy Lanyards like those served a number of purposes. For artillery gunners they were used to pull the triggers on the pieces when firing. For engineers they could be used for triggering charges etc. For signallers they could be used for a multitude of purposes including lashings for antennae and phone lines. https://www.flickr.com/photos/66151649@N02 Signallers were also responsible for field telephone communications and for, believe it or not, for semaphore! Remember your days in the boy scouts:-)
Swordscookie
https://www.flickr.com/photos/139877639@N08 You are right about some of the sticks Rory but some have the good old swagger sticks! Note both the right and left hand men on the middle row, they both have swagger sticks with the traditional ball head on them?
oaktree_brian_1976
https://www.flickr.com/photos/swordscookie I actually did semaphore with the flags, can't remember most of it.
suckindeesel
It is a riding crop but it is a "walking out" item not an issued "drivers whip". According to www.greatwarforum.org/topic/258257-royal-engineers-driver...
Swordscookie
https://www.flickr.com/photos/66151649@N02 So did I and later I was in a Signals Company in our military reserve, the FCA! When I joined first in the early 60s we were using sets that had once been fitted to WW1 tanks! Our troops going on UN peacekeeping duties in the Congo etc. radically changed our military and especially our kit immeasurably!
KenjiB_48
Those lanyards look a bit like fourrageres. I note that some appear to be of different colors, also...distinctions based on training, ratings, or some such?
derangedlemur
https://www.flickr.com/photos/77603809@N02 The links I found suggested it depended on the service branch and on whether it was for field service or not.
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
Did anyone unearth anything on Mr Tice, who commissioned this photograph from Poole?
ofarrl
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland I could only find one Tice in the 1911 census and he was a 75 year old driver for the Army Service Corps in Longford. Another candidate might be a Lieutenant(later captain) Charles Allen Tice who had been an Indian Army reserve officer, during WW 1 he was attached to the army's Supply and Transport Division which would have worked in close cooperation with the Royal Engineers. I haven't found any evidence he was ever in Ireland though but it's a possibility and he was living in England just before the war even though he was born in India.
bobgbennett
The lanyard was an item of personal kit issued to all British Army soldiers at that time along with a clasp knife that regulations decreed was to be retained in the top left chest pocket. To shorten their length it became common for soldiers to plait them in various ways. Swagger sticks were laid down in unit standing orders as to be carried when walking-out of barracks and were as part of ‘turnout’ checked at the guardroom. They kept the hands occupied rather than in pockets and were intended to give a soldier a sense of smart demeanour. In units employed on mounted duty such as ‘linesmen’ of the RE Signals Service a whip (riding) was carried instead. Although whips (only) were issued on a scale at public expense, in general soldiers were required to purchase their own swagger sticks and whips at subsidised rates from unit sources. The metal tops were often inscribed with regimental emblems and symbology. In overseas stations such as India the sticks were exceedingly cheap and in the Far East were often made of cane known as whangee.
DaithiDePaor
Man beside sergeant seated on front row is a Boer War veteran sporting Queen's and King's South Africa medals. www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.worthpo...