Inventories of war: soldiers' kit from 1066 to 2014

Found on Facebook courtesy of Arthur Barie, proprietor of Bring the heat, Bring the Stupid.

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, Battle of the Somme

While the First World War was the first modern war, as the Somme kit illustrates, it was also primitive. Along with his gas mask a private would be issued with a spiked ‘trench club’ – almost identical to medieval weapons.

Picture: THOM ATKINSON

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 ATKINSONMore Pics and descriptions at the link below.I found it to be an interesting little photo essay.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/11006139/Inventories-of-war-soldiers-kit-from-1066-to-2014.html?frame=2994148