The sample article below appeared in the Spring 2005 edition of the magazine. Because of limitations regarding colour printing in the magazine, the original article appeared illustrated with greyscale images. 

The web site gives us the opportunity to let you enjoy the article with its original colour images.

Trench Art

How items made by a DLI soldier fired a new collecting interest

My interest in Trench Art came about through meeting a veteran of the Second World War – not, I must confess, a DLI veteran but an ex-Navy man. He had, nevertheless, a family connection with the DLI Museum in its early days and also had many acquaintances who had served with the regiment. He was also steeped in the history of the village of his birth and, because of that, knew families that had lost men folk in the Great War, too. 

We talked often when, in old age, he called into the school of which I was Head Teacher and then, one day, surprised me by bringing in two items that he said he wished me to have. Puzzled, I asked him why he was giving such beautiful things away – his flattering answer was that he wanted them to pass on to someone who knew their origin and their significance and would treasure them. He was right about that. I was stunned and found it very easy to become attached to his gifts.

He told me that the cap, which is about 7.5 cm (or 3” in old money) in diameter, and the match bucket (or pail as it would be known locally) had been made by a soldier who had lived across the road from the school.

He told me the soldier’s name – Clarke – though he knew little more about him other than that he had fought with the Durham Light Infantry in the Great War. He had been given the items by one of the Clarke family.

The brass objects triggered a need in me to know more. I wanted to find out, first of all, what had happened to the man who made them but I was also aware of a desire to learn more about Trench Art generally and to add other items to my new collection.

Private William Clarke, 204072, in fact served with the 13th Battalion DLI and is recorded as having died in action on 20th September 1917, one of the multitude of men who did not come home. His pieces of Trench Art survive as testament to his skill with his hands and pride in his regiment.

Looking at the items I had been given, I remembered that my father used to use a lighter made of brass which had a cartridge case soldered to the bottom to make it easier to hold. That was no longer around and had probably been thrown out before he died but I recalled seeing something else of his that had been kept - it resembled a fat bullet but had a hinged, serrated lid at one end and had been made by, who knows who, as a waterproof match container and pipe tamper. Smoking, and aids to ensure access to the nicotine drug were obviously of some importance to soldiers! 

This strange matchbox probably had a similar pedigree to that of the two pieces I had been given. I searched it out, cleaned it up and though it had seen better days, proudly put it on display with the cap and bucket.

This matchbox is just over 5cm long. The sprung cap has the striker serrations on the outside but the other end is serrated, too

So I was hooked! From then on I was on the look out for similar items, invariably made from, predominantly, brass - and some of these I have used as illustrations later in this article. I quickly discovered that there are very keen collectors out there – and some extremely fine artefacts to collect. Clearly there were many very skilled artisans who had applied themselves to the making of some of the more complex and unusual pieces – but these were outside my price range!

Trench Art is a general name that includes the items I have already described but which also covers a whole range of other items made of bone, wood metal and even cloth. Probably because of the huge increase in the manufacture of such items during the Great War, and the mistaken impression that they were made by the soldiers in the trenches, the name stuck.  In fact, soldiers have been making objects to pass the time long before the 1914 –18 war and since then, too.

Recently Trench Art has been defined by Dr. Nicholas J. Saunders*, Lecturer in Material Culture and British Academy Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology, University College London, as "any object made by any person from any material, as long as it and they are associated in time or space with armed conflict or its consequences."

Clearly, the field covered by such a definition is enormous and the would-be collector will have to focus more sharply. You can see from the items shown here that my focus is metal objects made between 1914 and 1945.  There is, however, a need to consider the source of the objects, too.

Items of Trench Art may have been made by soldiers or by civilians. Soldiers who were prisoners of war with time to kill did produce some items while those actually fighting in the trenches, who had little time, were also productive, but it was difficult to work for long periods in those circumstances and also very dangerous if any noise was involved. Enemy listening posts would have picked up sustained tapping or hammering. There is evidence that simple metal items were made in the front line positions but soldiers could more easily work carving bone and wood, for example. Probably the more complicated items involving hours of work (including brazing and soldering, etc.) were made while on rest behind the lines, like the items attributed to William Clarke. Good provenance is particularly useful.

There was a large civilian industry particularly in France and Belgium, employed from 1914, which produced the greatest volume of Trench Art. Items made from war scrap (brass shell cases, etc.) as well as from de-activated material (rifle and machine gun bullets, etc.) were sold during the war to soldiers for their own use (as in the case of knives, matchboxes, etc.) as well as for presents. Some were dated like the item illustrated below.  Both Allied and Axis soldiers bought such items but when the war ended the market changed.  Widows and families came to visit graves, tourists arrived to see the battlefields and cemeteries, and Trench Art found a new future as mementos. For many of these visitors this was all they could take home. Their loved ones were gone and these keepsakes helped to keep alive the memories. 

Many pieces of Trench Art have been produced from bullets/cartridges.  In this case the bullet can be remove and reversed turning the whole into a knife

Over the years the regular polishing often gradually erased some of the finer detail. Alan Carter writing for ‘Treasure Hunt’ summed the situation up as follows. “It’s easy to see why these battlefield mementoes came to be regarded by servicemen and their families almost as holy relics as they were, in essence, a three dimensional autobiography of a soldier’s wartime experience.” He identified a third source of Trench Art, “Mounted War Trophies.” Items included in this third category of Trench Art were manufactured in the United Kingdom and, to a lesser extent, Germany after hostilities ended. They were assembled from materials of war brought back as souvenirs and mementoes by returning servicemen. Production of Trench Art was a strictly business operation, though the British-based Army and Navy Store, for example, operated a personalised service for soldiers. They created made–to-order designs from their war memorabilia, mounting the finished product on an ebonised base.

So, in summary, pieces described as ‘Trench Art’ have the following distinctly different origins (Jane A. Kimball; “Trench Art of the Great War And Related Souvenirs”):

1.   War souvenirs collected by soldiers or non-combatants during the war and during the demobilization period and modified in some way to

      serve as a remembrance of the war. 

2.   Souvenirs crafted by soldiers during the war. 

3.   Souvenirs made for sale to soldiers by other soldiers or civilians during the war. 

4.   Souvenirs made by prisoners of war in exchange for food, cigarettes or money. 

5.   Mementoes of the war made by convalescent soldiers. 

6.   Post-war souvenirs made for tourists visiting the battlefields.

7.   Post-war souvenirs made by commercial firms in ‘trench-art style’

Though all sorts of military and utility objects provided the raw material for the makers of Trench Art, some items are more common. A huge quantity of shells, for instance, were expended during the war and they provided a ready source of brass for the production of vases, umbrella stands, coal scuttles, napkin rings clocks, cups, candlesticks, beakers, dinner gongs etc. Similarly a large number of objects were produced from bullets, cartridges and ammunition clips. Even grenades were made into inkwells. Collectors sometimes specialise in, for example, shell art alone - but there are a great variety of forms of Trench Art to choose from.

This scimitar-style letter opener is made from scrap brass and has a bullet/cartridge handle. It is typical of the post-First World War civilian-produced Trench Art, that was sold to battle site visitors and relatives

It bears the message ‘Souvenir of the Great War’ on one side and ‘France 1918’ on the other.

There is certainly something poetic about beautiful and useful items being produced from the deadly materials of war.  Recycling with a twist! This change of use, in the case of many objects, was not to be permanent, though.  When the war effort appeals were made, during the Second World War, a lot of Great War brass and shrapnel was re-cycled again into weapons.

Nevertheless, if you wish to start a collection, there is still a great deal of Trench Art to be found - and in an amazing variety of materials and forms. 

Happy hunting!

* Dr. Nicholas Saunders book, “Trench Art: A Brief History and Guide 1914 – 1939 (ISBN 0850528208) is published by Pen and Sword Books/Lee Cooper, Barnsley, SouthYorks.  http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk