Chiswick's Gallant Gunner Topical Budget 266-1
From the collection of
From the collection of
Three cheers for Maurice Samuels, as a Chiswick tram driver receives a medal for bravery at the Western Front at Ypres.
Major General Lord Cheylesmore, a peer, soldier and chairman of the London County Council, leads the cheers after pinning a Military Medal to the chest of Maurice Samuels, a Chiswick tram driver who rescued wounded soldiers under fire at Ypres. Samuels smiles at the camera, while women behind stand grinning. Samuels, who volunteered at the war's outbreak and was twice severely wounded at Ypres himself, survived the war, receiving a medical discharge in December 1916.
Major General Lord Cheylesmore, a peer, soldier and chairman of the London County Council, leads the cheers after pinning a Military Medal to the chest of Maurice Samuels, a Chiswick tram driver who rescued wounded soldiers under fire at Ypres. Samuels smiles at the camera, while women behind stand grinning. Samuels, who volunteered at the war’s outbreak and was twice severely wounded at Ypres himself, survived the war, receiving a medical discharge in December 1916.
For those who lived through it, the First World War was a harrowing experience. Millions of Britons faced death, injury and trauma on the battlefronts, and life wasn’t necessarily that much easier for those they left behind in Blighty.
Shortages of food and fuel made daily life a ceaseless grind, never mind the ever-present dread of enemy bombs or of telegrams carrying grim news. But life went on, and there was work to be done; factories were refitted to make munitions and materiel, while with so many men serving at the fronts, women stepped up in their millions to work the machines or farm the fields.