Dogs Of War: Unseen WW1 Photos Show Soldiers With Their Canine Companions

A Staff Sergeant of the Army Service Corps with the Corps pet dogs, Hissy and Jack (SWNS)

A photographer who has spent four decades collecting dog photos stumbled upon the 100-year-old WW1 images at a market stall

These are the heartwarming images that prove even during war, dogs have always been man’s best friend.

A photographer who has spent four decades collecting dog photos stumbled upon the 100-year-old WW1 images at a market stall.

Libby Hall, 73, snapped up the pictures not only because she is a dog fanatic but because she feared they were destined for the skip if no-one bought them.

Officers, Warrant Officers, Staff Sergeants, of the Army Service Corps (ASC) c1917. (SWNS)

A British messenger dog in France during the First World War, 19 May 1918. (SWNS)

Two German Other Ranks (ORs) holding puppies, undated. (SWNS)

Libby, of Hackney, east London, is exhibiting the images at The Bishopsgate Institute, in Spitalfields, as a show entitled Dogs of the First World War.

She said: ‘My collecting began by chance.

‘I was a press photographer and discovered that a local junk shop in Dalston doing house clearances was simply throwing away old photographs.

‘I persuaded them to let me have them, really just to save them from the dustbin.

Four soldiers standing behind seated civilians and two dogs, 1st August 1915. (SWNS)

Corporal of the Worcestershire Regiment and canine companion, circa 1917. (SWNS)

The 209th (Norfolk) Field Company, Royal Engineers, of the 34th Division. (SNWS)

‘I have lived with dogs all my life and began to be intrigued by the photographs that had dogs in them.’

Libby started collecting pictures of dogs in 1966 and chose a selection of them appearing in the 1914-18 war to display in the exhibition.

Entry is free to the exhibition and it runs until June 26.

Bruce a Rough Collie mascot of Moseley Road, Fire Station, Birmingham, c.1914 (SWNS)

Two German officers probably of General von Kluckâs, 1st German Army, resting behind the lines at Le Cateau

Via: uk.news.yahoo.com