Fantastic and extremely rare Original WW1 Sherwood Foresters set including 2 Photo Albums of original unpublished / private photos and a Sherwood Foresters Swagger Stick.
The photo albums are fantastic and feature officers rather than enlisted men.
Both albums bear the name of Jo Pathe or Pattie
They show the army training regime before reaching the front and then many rare and unpublished photos from active service and the front line including 2 very rare British Tank photos
What makes these albums extremely rare is that British soldiers were officially banned from taking photographs at the front during most of World War I, but the prohibition was widely ignored, especially by officers - as the war progressed, restrictions were tightened and some soldiers were court martialled for taking photos
Both albums are attributed to the 4th Btn Sherwood Foresters.
Many of the photos are annotated on the back
The first album is dated 5th Feb 1916 and contains 96 photos, mainly of training ready for the Front. Approx 21 of the photos relate to home life - the rest show a fantastic insight into the training regime with gun practice and trench preparation.
The second album is dated 19th October 1916 and mainly covers a period where the Btn was in France and/or at the Front. It includes rare photos of soldiers training with gas masks.
There is a heavy focus on Army transport / lorries some of which appear to be set up a mobile engineering workshops. There are 2 photos of early British Tanks at Bray sur Somme which was the base of the Tank Corps. There are a number of photos of trench dugouts and of the devastated No Mans Land areas. Also there are 2 photos of Avro biplanes.
The second album has 188 photos of which approx 56 are of home life or views.
