Drawing on the Front Line

Britain and the Widening War 1915-1916:
"In a series of concise, thought-provoking chapters the authors summarize – and make accessible – the latest scholarship on the middle years of the Great War – 1915 and 1916 – and cover fundamental issues that are rarely explored outside the specialist journals. Their work is an important contribution to advancing understanding of Britain’s role in the war, and it will be essential reading for anyone who is keen to keep up with the fresh research and original interpretation that is transforming our insight into the impact of the global conflict. The principal battles and campaigns are reconsidered from a new perspective, but so are more general topics such as military leadership, the discord between Britain’s politicians and generals, conscientious objection and the part played by the Indian Army. The longer-term effects of the war are also considered – facial reconstruction, developments in communication, female support for men on active service, grief and bereavement, the challenge to religious belief, battlefield art, and the surviving vestiges of the war."
Pen & Sword, 2016
Edited by Peter Liddle

Contributors: Andrew Bamji, Clive Barrett, Nick Bosanquet, James Cooke, Emily Glass, Graeme Gooday, Adrian Gregory, Andrea Hetherington, Robert Johnson, Spencer Jones, Peter Liddle, Juliet MacDonald, Jessica Meyer, David Millichope, NS Nash, William Philpott, James Pugh, Duncan Redford, Nicholas Saunders, Gary Sheffield, Jack Sheldon, John Spencer, Kapil Subramanian.

Chapter 20, 'Drawing on the Front Line', focuses on the artist Adrian Hill, later famous as a TV presenter and writer, and also as a proponent of the therapuetic value of art, said to have coined the term 'art therapy'. Hill arrived on the Western Front in July 1916 during the battle of the Somme. This chapter draws on archive material, including Hill's letters home and his drawings, to trace his experiences during his first few months of active service in the Somme region. The chapter narrates Hill's transition, during the course of the following year, from infantry corporal to an appointment as official war artist with the new National War Museum (later the Imperial War Museum).