Images Dated 2014 January

Wartime recruiting posters at Paddington Station, 1915

Recruiting posters were a popular way of encouraging men to enlist. Millions of posters were produced and displayed up and down the country during the war. The messages were often vivid and graphic, but also very sophisticated; they appealed to the young man and his sense of adventure and duty. The posters in this image are displayed on the cab ramp of Paddington Station in 1915. The central poster was designed by Lucy Kemp-Welch, a British artist, and refers to the bombardment of Scarborough, Whitby and Hartlepool by German battleships on 16th December 1914. Both posters were published by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee

© STEAM Museum of the GWR

No 18 Stamping Shop at Swindon Works in 1915

A view of No. 18 Stamping Shop from March 1915, showing the reverse of a stationary boiler. At the bottom left of the image are sheets of metal ready to be heated in the gas furnaces just above. Once heated, the sheet metal is removed to the steam hammers (seen here on the right) and stamped into dies to create components. Incidentally, in July 1915, the book Life in a Railway Factory was first published. It was written by Alfred Williams and was his account of life inside Swindon Works. Alfred worked as head Drop-Stamper in this shop for 20 years, until ill health forced him to leave factory life in September 1914

© STEAM Museum of the GWR