Photographing the Fallen: A War Graves Photographer on the Western Front 1915–1919

By Jeremy Gordon-Smith

Ivan Bawtree has left behind a vast array of archives that tell the story of his work as a photographer with the Graves Registration Units on the Western Front from 1915 to 1919. He traveled to numerous parts of Northern France and Flanders most notably the Ypres Salient to photograph and record graves of fallen soldiers on behalf of grieving relatives. He was one of only three professional photographers assigned to this task, hired by the newly formed Graves Registration Commission in 1915.Through his pencil and lens we gain detailed insight not just into the work he did and the men he worked with, but also aspects of the military zones, the perils of proximity to the Front Line, the devastation of war, and the birth and early work of the Imperial War Graves Commission.Today, the war cemeteries that Ivan saw spring up across battle-scarred landscapes and provide the most widespread and enduring reminder of the scale of loss and sacrifice of the Great War.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781473893672

Book preview

Chapter One

Journey to the Western Front

Early Life

Ivan Lancelot Bawtree was born at Blackwater House, Sutton, Surrey on 12 January 1894 to Alfred Bawtree and Matilda Hephzibah Clark. He was the youngest of three brothers and three sisters. His parents were both from well-to-do families and employed a nanny, Nurse Thomas, with whom Ivan developed a close bond. The family was deeply involved in Sutton Congregational Church where his father was a deacon and his mother ran a women’s Bible study group.

He described their home as ‘a big old house with a large garden, formerly the property of a blacksmith whose forge was attached to the house. It was situated in the lower part of Sutton on clay soil and rather damp. Not a very healthy spot and not a good neighbourhood.’ Apparently Ivan ‘distinguished himself sometimes by wandering off and getting lost. Once they even searched the water duct for him.’

One of his earliest memories dates from 1897, when

At the age of three, taken by Father and family for a picnic to Leith Hill, by train I expect. It was Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebrations and there was a huge bonfire built near Leith Hill Tower, nearly as tall as the tower. It was covered with a tarpaulin but when the time came to light it a man climbed to the top and I remember being scared he might not get down in time. I cannot remember the fire at all, but remember the long walk through the heather on Father’s shoulders.

The family then moved to another house in Sutton where Ivan would live for the rest of his life:

A surprise move was made in 1900 to Clapham Lodge, an old house with a two-acre garden in the middle of farmland, near Banstead Downs. We had to wait for water to be laid on and there was no proper sanitation, and no gas or electricity. I think we got the property from Mr Overton, the landowner, for the matter of a few hundred pounds.

Clapham Lodge was built in 1864 in the Georgian style for Miss Lucy Thornton. Her family had founded the ‘Clapham Sect’ who actively supported the ideas of William Wilberforce for the abolition of slavery in the early nineteenth century.

Ivan was educated at Sutton High School until he was 10 and then at County School, now Manor School, Sutton. At 12 years old, he joined the Boys’ Life Brigade at Sutton Congregational Church. His brother Athel was captain at the time. He commented in an audio memoir: ‘Our company of the BLB was the first thing of its kind in Sutton. The scouts weren’t formed until 1907. It therefore attracted a lot of boys – thirty on the first night.’ The first camp was in 1907 and his tent was under the charge of Sergeant Harry Daniels. Sadly, he would later photograph Daniels’ war grave in 1916.

‘We all enjoyed life at Clapham Lodge. I had a little tricycle I used to ride round the paths.’ (Early 1900s.)

Ivan in a darkroom at Kodak, c.1914.

The BLB was founded in 1899 by the National Sunday School Union and was most prevalent in non-conformist churches. It followed the formation of the Boys’ Brigade in 1883 by Sir William Alexander Smith, which sought to provide adolescent boys with the opportunity to engage in a range of activities, learn new skills, serve the community and grow in Christian discipleship. It was the Boys’ Brigade movement that pioneered organized camping. Ivan found the BLB extremely beneficial, describing himself as ‘timid and nervous – but a year or two in the Boys’ Brigade gave me confidence.’ By 1914 he became an officer and it would never cease to be a central part of his life.

I remained at school until I was 19 and passed the London Matriculation examination, and then I went to a Training School for Photograph Engraving and Lithography in London, and from there obtained a job as a laboratory assistant to Wratton and Wainright, [photographic] plate manufacturers at Croydon. That firm was bought up by Kodak Ltd and I therefore became employed by Kodaks where I remained working for 41 years.

Wratton and Wainright was the first company to manufacture dry plates for commercial use.

War Breaks Out

In 1914 rumours were flying about that there was a risk of war with Germany. The company [of the Boys Life Brigade] carried on until 1914 which was its last camp because the war broke out during the camp. We went to camp as usual with several London companies at Hythe on a rather nice field close to the railway station. We carried on the usual kind of programme and I took a lot of photos using a plate camera 6½ x 4¾ and developing in a portable darkroom on the field. I used to get a boy to bring me a bottle of cherry cider as a refresher. We were lucky to have Rev. E Pierce Powell with us as chaplain. On the Tuesday [4 August], I think it was, all our territorial officers including Athel, got a telegram calling them to report to their HQ. So on Wednesday morning we held a little farewell service in the camp with a skeleton staff (I was a Lieutenant at the time). We wished them Godspeed as we saw them off at the station. All that night troops were going off in trains from Hythe Station. After that there were more thrills and excitements as the war preparations were carried out, troops in training sometimes half the night through with their band playing, and when at last the end of our camp came on the Saturday, we had a very slow journey home being shunted into sidings to make room for troop trains passing us.

On return to normal life at Sutton I had to take over the captaincy and did my best to run an interesting programme for the boys, and we had a junior section called Cadets which I also ran. Oswald Stapley gave me a hand. Among my members was Phillip Evans a cadet of 11 years of age. We kept going until May 1915.

Athel had been serving in the Territorial Force since 1908, in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and received mobilization orders as soon as war broke out. He, like Ivan, was at the front until 1919, although very little material belonging to him survives beyond a few letters and his war medals. He is often mentioned in the diaries of Ivan and Viola.

Viola writes in August 1914:

The mobilisation envelope came for Athel on August 5th and we had to telegraph to him at the BLB Camp. Mr Powell was down there and gave him a farewell service and then all the boys marched to the station to see him off, and half of them were crying. The next morning we said goodbye to him, thinking we should not see him again till the war was over. He looked so splendid in his uniform ready for active service. We each kissed him and then he went up the Avenue, his arm around Mother, while Father walked the other side of him. He told Father, who went a little way with him that this was going to make a man of him. He also asked that we should all remember him in prayer at a fixed hour every day, and he would do the same of us. However, that wasn’t the last. He is still coming backwards and forwards from headquarters but each time we say goodbye it may be the last for a long time. He is to be inoculated against typhoid today and won’t be back tonight for certain.

A postcard photograph of ‘Captain at Crowborough’, stamped 17 April 1915, sent by Ivan to Cadet Phillip Evans. He was referring to Corporal Athel Bawtree (centre) at his training camp standing casually with other RAMC comrades.

Viola was deeply shaken by the outbreak of war and plainly expressed her sentiments. However, her distress is mixed with glimmers of hope:

How ghastly it all is. I feel as if we’re all the victims of a nightmare. How can such things be real! Yet amidst all the horrible blackness there are beautiful rifts of light. Parliament is united at last. No more shameful squabblings about Home Rule. The Tories are loud in their praise of the Government. Everywhere hearts are being drawn together. Messages of fellowship come from all over the world and offers of help. Also such great trouble will make many men and women when the trouble becomes bigger and closer as it is sure to do. I do hope I’ll come up to the scratch. I’m failing rottenly at present. I’m all on edge and the slightest thing annoys me. I must be a true woman at such a time. I’m praying to God that He will work a miracle and bring the war to a speedy end without much more bloodshed. There’s no pleasure in reading of our enemy’s defeat. It simply means more slaughter, more sorrowing widows and mothers. I never thought such an awful crisis could happen in modern times.

No ‘speedy end’ to the war was forthcoming and ten months later Ivan would also be heading to the Western Front. When war broke out he did not run to the nearest army recruiting office like so many who were caught by the wave of patriotism that swept the nation at the time. When asked by two old army ‘buffers’ why he didn’t join the army he replied that it was his duty to stay at home. There is no evidence that he had any conscientious objection to enlistment, so it seems that he simply felt that he should stay put. It is clear that he felt some level of duty to his family, as well as to the Boys’ Life Brigade, given that Athel was already in the army, and we know from reading Viola’s diaries that their father Alfred was suffering from deteriorating eyesight and financial problems. His eldest brother Alfred was already aged 40 with a young family in 1914. It is therefore likely that Ivan’s parents were somewhat dependent on him, not to mention reluctant to wave goodbye to a second son heading off to the front.

The photograph below is of the Bawtree family at Clapham Lodge, taken during the First World War. The exact date is unknown, and Ivan is missing, presumably because he was at the front at the time. Back row from left: Viola, Athel in uniform, Sylvia, unknown lady (an educated guess suggests this could be Milena Lilley, known as Aunt Millie), Lucy (née Legg) and Alfred Edwin (my great-grandparents). Sitting: Matilda and Alfred Bawtree. Kneeling: Elaine.

In 1915 a golden opportunity arose for Ivan to go to France to use his professional skills in a non-combatant role. Pressure to sign up was mounting and by 1916 conscription was introduced which would almost certainly have ensured his enlistment. He recounted his own war service enlistment in his memoirs:

As the war progressed I soon got involved. A special message came to Kodak Ltd, where I was working in Dept. 19 Technical Dept. under Jim Brown without much worry. I was approached by the managing director to know if I would take on a job for the BRCS in France to use a Kodak camera and take photos of the war graves. I consulted with them at home and it was agreed I should go, but mother wanted me not to take too great a risk because Athel also was in the forces. Well, of course, I just had to chance that. In 5 days I got my equipment, had injections, passport etc and within a week I was on my way to France.

Returning for a moment to the BB, Laurence Pascall, a member of our church, took over the company but he himself joined the forces and the company was disbanded in September 1915.

The mammoth task of graves registration was started by Major Fabian Ware. He was too old at 45 to enlist in the army in 1914, but instead gained command of a mobile ambulance unit provided by the British Red Cross Society, initially helping to get wounded soldiers to Red Cross posts and hospitals. He soon realized that as the casualties were mounting up there was no official procedure for registering and marking the graves of those who had been killed. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was too poorly equipped to deal with grave registration on the scale required and couldn’t have anticipated such huge casualties. Men were being buried in haphazard fashion amid chaotic situations, often by the roadside, right where they fell. Ware decided to start recording details of the graves so that the next of kin could be informed. The task of graves registration soon superseded the recovery of the wounded as Ware was under-resourced to keep up with both endeavours.

At first there was an apparent reluctance to direct funds towards an activity that did not directly help the war effort. However, by March 1915 General Sir Douglas Haig saw fit to write to the War Office:

It is fully recognised that the work of this organisation is of purely sentimental value, and that it does not directly contribute to the successful termination of the war. It has, however, an extraordinary moral value to the Troops in the Field as well as to the relatives and friends of the dead at home. The mere fact that these officers visit day after day, the cemeteries close behind the trenches, fully exposed to shell and rifle fire, accurately to record not only the names of the dead but also the exact place of burial, has a symbolic value to the men that it would be difficult to exaggerate.

It should be borne in mind that on termination of hostilities the nation will demand an account from the Government as to the steps which have been taken to mark and classify the burial places of the dead, steps which can only be effectively taken at, or soon after, burial.

The importance of Ware’s work was finally recognized by the military authorities in March 1915 when the Graves Registration Commission came into being on the Western Front. It started as a Red Cross operation, supplied by the army.

The London branch of the Red Cross had created an Enquiry Department for the Wounded and Missing in late 1914, set up by Lord Robert Cecil. This was the only official avenue for relatives to pursue lines of enquiry about missing loved ones. Once the GRC got under way it was able to furnish Cecil’s department with much more information. As the work of the GRC became more publicized, it was soon receiving numerous requests from distraught relatives desperate for information, photographs and details of the locations of the graves. By May 1915 Ware concluded that it therefore had become necessary for the GRC to seek out the services of a few professional photographers.

Since Ivan was working for Kodak at the time he was an obvious choice to recruit into Ware’s mobile unit to help meet the public demand for information about the fallen. One of his colleagues, Frederick Roper, had also been recruited. This was pioneering work as never before had such attention been given to military war dead and the needs of their relatives.

Ivan’s diary from 1915 details his calling to go to Flanders to work for the GRC:

28.5.15 Mr Hear mentions temporary job of photographer in GRC in Flanders. Obtain consent of Father and Mother.

29.5.15 Interview [with] Lieut. Brook in reception hall at Kodaks. Mentions screw [wage] as 30/- per week, gives particulars of work and mentions that we are liable to shell-fire but that we never have to work under rifle fire or in places which are known to be regularly shelled. Afterwards interview [with] Mr Mathisson. Nothing definite fixed up.

31.5.15 Receive letter instructing to go up to Pall Mall and suggesting Tuesday as a suitable day for departure. Visit Pall Mall 11pm. See Mr Hastings. Rush back to Sutton and try and get various doctors’ signatures for passport. Finally get Dr Morgan’s. Reach Pall Mall 3pm and go through many wearisome performances in which I am accompanied by Roper – the other photographer obtained from Kodaks. Roper had been taking photos in S. Africa. Interview by two old Buffers and asked why I don’t join the army. Told them I felt it was my duty to stay at home. They fight it out between themselves and the Doctor passes and inoculates. Go round to uniform dept. and get served out with full equipment but no mess-tin or anything of that kind. Get down to Cadets Parade, say goodbye and dismiss them. Stapley agrees to take over the Cadets and to help with the company.

1.6.15 Again visit Pall Mall and go through other processes towards getting a passport. Have to wait an hour or two in RAC entrance hall for signature of Secretary of BRCS. Visit Kodaks and say goodbye to J.B. and others. C. Bumm gives me the photograph of Sapper Grayling, the first Kodak boy to be killed, and asks me to look up the grave if I ever visit Armentières.

2.6.15 Go up to London and receive railway ticket. We are to catch the 8.30 boat-train to Folkestone on Thursday. Get home and make hurried preparations. Take BLB parade and say goodbye to boys. Say goodbye to VAD and the NCOs. Pack kitbag.

Arrival in France

3.6.15 Get up at 5.30 and finish packing kit. Say goodbye to family and cycle off to Sutton where Mr Lawton accompanied me to Victoria, travelled down with Lord Londsdale. Victoria the train leaves. Reached Folkestone about 11. As we pass Sandling Junction could not help thinking of the last time I was there – taking the boys home from the Hythe camp. Reached Folkestone and got out on the pier where we hung about until we could get our passports viséed. At last we get onto our boat which leaves at about 11.30. Very very strange it was seeing the white cliffs slowly receding. Had a fine view of Hythe and Sandgate (the first view from the sea). The little steamer we were on got up a fine speed and the crossing was very enjoyable.

The sea was as smooth as glass. We had not been going for long when a torpedo destroyer appeared on the scene and convoyed us for a mile or two. Then on the left we saw a long line of buoys stretching out to sea. These buoys support a big net which prevents submarines from getting through. It was only half completed when I crossed. After about a couple of hours (during which I succeeded in smoking