Eccentric Club Entertain Wounded Soldiers Topical Budget 253-1
From the collection of
From the collection of
Soldiers stage a mock brawl and watch performances during festivities for 600 wounded soldiers held on an island in the Thames near Hampton Court.
Some 600 wounded soldiers, as well as civilians and Boy Scouts, are drawn to Tagg's Island, a small Thames island near Hampton Court, for an afternoon of entertainment Fred Karno's Karsino. Karno was an impresario and comic who built a music hall on Tagg's Island in 1912. During the war, it became popular with soldiers, hundreds of whom can be seen here watching performances, picnicking on the lawn and, despite their crutches, staging a mock brawl.
Some 600 wounded soldiers, as well as civilians and Boy Scouts, are drawn to Tagg’s Island, a small Thames island near Hampton Court, for an afternoon of entertainment Fred Karno’s Karsino. Karno was an impresario and comic who built a music hall on Tagg’s Island in 1912. During the war, it became popular with soldiers, hundreds of whom can be seen here watching performances, picnicking on the lawn and, despite their crutches, staging a mock brawl.
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.