D C Harries Collection : Military Portraits

Over nine hundred portraits, mostly studio, predominantly of First World War era British Soldiers. Most are individual portraits, some are in small groups with family or friends, also large group photographs. Many depicting a Territorial Force summer camp may well be from a 1913 camp held between Bridge and Lovelock farms, Ffairfach in the summer of 1913. The vast majority are anonymous but some can be given approximate dates by the presence of overseas service chevrons, good conduct stripes etc. Many of those dated 1914, especially the Pembroke Yeomanry, may well date from the years preceding the outbreak of WW1. Other portraits are of members of associated services and include veterans of earlier conflicts and servicemen & women from World War Two. The latter category including American troops from the 28th Division who were camped in South Wales from October 1943 until July 1944 as well as Free French and Belgian soldiers. Both US Corps of Engineers and infantry corps are represented. The engineers are believed to be men of the 103rd Engineer Battalion who served with the 28th Division. Their headquarters from October 1943 to April 1944 was the Hotel Belgrave, Tenby. There are also a considerable number of US Quartermaster Corps GI's including African-American soldiers.

Access to the original work by authorised permission only. Users are directed to use the digital image. Digital images are available at https://crowd.library.wales/en/s/dcharries

D C Harries (1865-1940) operated photographic studios in Llandeilo and Ammanford (Rhydaman) so these are thought to be portraits of recruits and conscripts from these areas.

Although dates from c1914-c1918 are given for most of the photos some can be more accurately dated by the presence of a)Overseas Service Chevrons worn on the right forearm which were introduced in December 1917, and ceased being worn in 1922. b) Wound Stripes which were introduced in July 1916 and also discontinued in Nov 1922. Some of the WW2 negatives were stored by year.

Note that spellings used ( eg Welsh Regiment, Royal Welsh Fusiliers) are those correct at the time these photos were taken, not the later versions.

From 1944 onwards it appears to have been common practice to write the surname and / or address in the corner of the negative, though this was not done in all cases.

https://crowd.library.wales/en/s/dcharries

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Copyright NLW.

Published

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru = The National Library of Wales