Who is the soldier in this famous photo?

[marksimner]

Dear All

Apologies if this has been asked/discussed before but I was wondering if anyone knew who the soldier was in this famous photograph/still from the First World War? Was he ever identified and if so what was his name and regiment?

Thank you all in advance.

Mark

[Jim Hastings]

I saw a programme where Andy Robertshaw employed facial recognition experts to try and determine who he was. As far as he concluded, and as far as I am still aware, this soldier remains unidentified. I believe many a name has been put forward by relatives but none so far been confirmed

Cheers

Jim

[marksimner]

Thanks, Jim! I strongly suspected he is unknown since I have seen this photo/still so many times but never heard a name mentioned.

I hope the mystery is one day solved but I suspect he may sadly remain unknown forever.

Mark

[Moonraker]

Not really much use to you, Mark, but I posted way back in 2006 about the film clip from which the still is taken.

see here

Moonraker

[marksimner]

Thanks, Moonraker! if the questioned hasn't been answer on here since 2006 I won't hold out my hopes for an answer in my thread

Mark

[Moonraker]

Another old thread that is more relevant, with another link therein (that I now find doesn't work)

here

Moonraker

[marksimner]

Thanks for the link, Moonraker! An interesting read. I guess many will continue to claim it is an ancestor of theirs but unable to offer any real proof.

Mark

[Jim Hastings]

Hi Mark,

I am sure this was the programme with Andrew Robertshaw attempting the identification, it is in a few parts so may have to work through a couple, although a good programme in its entirety

Cheers Jim

[marksimner]

Many thanks, Jim! I will enjoy watching this

Mark

[Jim Hastings]

This one may interest you too Mark

Not about the soldier you mentioned in your opening post as such, but a very poignant documentary from 1991 about the Somme

All the best

Jim

[Stoppage Drill]

I've always been suspicious about this photo, which is a still from Malins' film, and I think that it may have been a posed scene. The film caption refers to a "badly wounded" man, and whilst absence of blood or visible trauma in shot proves nothing, taken in account with Malin's known practice of posing shots, it is suspicious. Similarly, the apparent lack of concern of the other men in the background does not reflect proximity to a crisis. (The image you posted is a bit cropped.)

However, some years ago, (maybe 1980's) a lady wrote to the Daily Telegraph to say that the carrier was her father, Driver Tom Spencer of the Royal Garrison Artillery. Of course, it may have been Spencer, whether the scene was posed or not.

[Retlaw]

Dear All

Apologies if this has been asked/discussed before but I was wondering if anyone knew who the soldier was in this famous photograph/still from the First World War? Was he ever identified and if so what was his name and regiment?

Thank you all in advance.

Mark

There is a similar picture in the Burnley Express by courtesy of the Daily Mail, showing a Driver Tom Spencer of the R.G.A. who saved several men from the German snipers on the Somme battlefield, he was awarded the D.C.M.

If this site was more user friendly I would have posted the picture.

[SiegeGunner]

By coincidence, I went to a talk on the Malins film by Andy Robertshaw last Saturday (at the Redoubt Fortress & Museum in Eastbourne, whose programme of monthly talks I highly recommend). He said, if memory serves me correctly, that the soldier carrying the wounded man remains unidentified, that the nonchalant postures of the men in the background suggest that the scene may have been staged, and that the man put forward by his daughter was found not to have been on the Somme on the 1st of July 1916.

[healdav]

Of course, this sort of scene may have been so common that the other men around took no notice.

[David Filsell]

That's one hell of an expression to fake

[bantamforgot]

Hi Mick,

Reference the talk you mention , check "see here" post 4 on this thread.

Colin.