WW1 - 1917 Air-Raid over Thanet

WW1 - 1917 Air-Raid  over Thanet recorded by The Illustrated London News

Role of the Boy Scouts in WW1 - Cartoon by George Loraine Stampa

Role of the Boy Scouts in WW1 - George Loraine Stampa (1875-1951). Stampa was a regular contributor to Punch aka The London Charivari. 

This cartoon from July 1916, shows a troop of Boy Scouts on coastguard patrol, challenging an elderly artist who is sketching a nearby harbour.

Boy Scout "Sketching the Harbour is not allowed."

Artist "Confound you! My name's Cadmium Brown, and..."

Boy scout "Carry on then. We've got orders that you are harmless."

Belfast City Tramways - Boy Scout Pass

A pass issued in 1915, by Belfast City Tramways enabling Boy Scouts - in uniform - to travel free of charge on the city's tram network.

Scout Camp at Seasalter August 1912

Little did this group of Scouts and their leaders realise that within 2 years of this carefree camp at Seasalter, that the Country would be entering the First World War.

The camp is taken place on the reclaimed marshland at Seasalter in August, 1912. 

The Scouts and Leaders are from Number 3, Lady Harris' Own, Faversham.

WW1 Postcard - Kent the Doorway to England

Postcard produced by Voile and Roberson's of Faversham. The card appears to be a recruitment advertisement for an early form of 'Home Guard' - "Kent The Doorway of England - I had rather be a doorkeeper in the County of Kent than dwell in the Tents of the Huns."

The card was posted by Billy High to his mother in February 1917, as a means of letting her know where he was posted, without upsetting the censor.

Boy Scouts in WW1 - Wilmot Lunt

Superb Wilmot Lunt cartoon published in 'Punch' on October 21st 1914. Lunt was a regular contributor to Punch and other periodicals throughout WW1.

Born as Samuel Wilmot Lunt in Warrington, Cheshire. Lunt attended the Académie Julian in Paris and showed at Paris Salon in 1901

This scene depicts Boy Scouts who have been deployed in duties such as guarding the Country's coastlines and railway network. This particular pair of Scouts are shown hunting Germans: 

Boy Scout "Xcuse me Mum, 'ave yer seen any Germans about 'ere?"

A clearer image of the Cartoon 

 

Boy Scouts in WW1 - Cartoonist Bert Thomas (1883-1966)

Bert Thomas joined 'Punch' the British weekly magazine of humour and satire in 1905 and contributed until 1935. During the First World War he was in the Artist Rifles. 

Thomas' political cartoons started to be included in gallery exhibitions as artistic caricatures as early as 1913, in an exhibition on the Strand by the Society of Humorous Art.  

Thomas became famous for drawing also drew the cartoon of a grinning soldier lighting a pipe with the caption “’Arf a mo’ Kaiser!”. The cartoon appeared in the Weekly Dispatch in aid of the paper’s 'Tobacco-for-Troops Fund' which raised around £250,000. In 1936 his illustrations for a series of readers’ letters in the Evening News were labeled “Half a mo’ stories” and in the Second World War the cartoon reappeared with the caption “Half a mo’ Hitler”.

 

On October 2nd 1918, 'Punch' published a Bert Thomas cartoon depicting a boy speaking to his father, an Army officer. The boy is alluding that his Scoutmaster knows more about military tactics than his father:  

Boy: "Here's my Scout-Master coming Dad. I'll introduce you. If you talk about military subjects be careful won't you? Because he's awfully clever."