Lieutenant Ivor Castle in the Great War

Lieutenant Ivor Castle, the second of the three CWRO photographers, and the first war photographer of the Daily Mirror in the Great War.

“At Liege I listened to a bombardment such as I had never heard in the Balkan wars; and yet the bombardment of Liege was but a dull firework display, an exhibition for an evening’s entertainment, contrasted with the violence of the artillery fighting on the Somme.”

Ivor Castle

Retreat from Mons

William Ivor Castle, born in 1877 in Bristol, had worked for the Daily Mirror,
an illustrated newspaper, since its inception in 1904. Ten years later, during the first days of the Great War, Castle travelled to Belgium to photograph the German invasion. As the Germans closed in, he was forced to retreat to Antwerp and returned to work at the newspaper for two years before he returned to the front.

“Of all the battles of which I have been a spectator, that of the Somme is the least productive from the point of view of the photographer…One might get some wonderful photographs if one had the complete liberty of movement. But one would want a hundred charmed lives and indulgence from the enemy.”

Ivor Castle, Canada in Khaki, CWRO, 1917, p 68.

Goerz Anschutz folding plate camera

Lieutenant (Frederick) Oscar Bovill, Canadian official cameraman, and Captain Ivor Castle, Canadian official photographer, with their camera team recording the bombardment of German positions on the Somme opposite the Canadians. September 1916.

The large dimensions of the Moy & Bastie when mounted on its associated tripod, made it, and its operative, easy targets for enemy snipers.

Propaganda of the Facts

Lt Ernest Brooks recreated and staged some of his earlier photographs. Exposed by other journalists for faking photographs and in 1916, Britain introduced a policy known as Propaganda of the Facts, which banned staged or fake images, noting that they undermined Allied credibility.

Very few images captured by Lieutenant William Ivor Castle had been doctored. His first series which caused him some trouble ‘Over the Top’ published just prior to the new policy. Lord Beaverbrook (Max Aitken) gave these images prime real-estate when exhibited, as well as the faked images from Vimy Ridge, published the year after Propaganda of the Facts.

Daily Mirror War Photographers

The first of the Daily Mirror photographers none other than Ivor Castle, and quickly joined by three brothers – Tom, Horace and Bernard Grant.

On the day war declared by Britain, the three Grant Brothers on holiday together on the South Coast of England. Having boarded the first available ferry the three joined up with Ivor Castle and they went to work. They covered the Belgian Army’s brave but ultimately futile attempts to hold back the advancing German Army. 

The Retreat from Mons

Tales of divisions of mounted German cavalry being repulsed by small units of Belgian machine gunners riding bicycles cheered the mood back home in Britain for a while, but the brothers and their colleague Ivor Castle soon found themselves retreating to Antwerp as the German army closed in on the city.

Escape from Ghent

“The Germans have taken Ghent. Will Ostend be the next to see them? That was the one question being asked here today by anxious Belgians who have been astounded by the sudden advance of the Germans through their country.

This swift dash by the Kaiser’s troops was made in big motor cars which can clear their way with the deadly quick-firing guns. The invaders are reported to have scores of these motor cars and they are capable of covering at least forty or fifty miles a day through hostile country.

Ghent this morning was a city bordering on panic. When the dread news ‘The Germans are coming’ swept through the streets men of the civil guard were seen to be throwing down their arms, taking off their uniforms and running to their homes.

At the railway station were pitiful scenes. Refugees were carrying a few spare clothes, a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread, snatched in haste. ‘Where are the trains?’ was the continuous plea of agonized women who besieged the station. All the trains that could be seen consisted of from eighteen to twenty locomotives, all linked together. It was on these that those who feared to stay in Ghent made their way to Ostend, which when I arrived today was strangely apathetic about the onrush of the Germans.

Before I left Ghent I asked a high-ranking military officer whether I need leave for Ostend. ‘Good heavens!’ he cried ‘You’re an Englishman; you’ll be shot!’ I managed to get on one of the last trains to leave for Ostend.”

Ivor Castle, on his escape from Ghent 1914

CWRO Recruitment

The photographs of the rapid German advance and the fall of Antwerp remains a remarkable and rare record of the early more mobile stages of the war, but their work would continue. In 1915 Bernard Grant enlisted in the Royal Navy and became a British Official and Admiralty photographer. 

“Take precaution not to photograph our fallen Canadians, but by all means photograph all the Germans you want!“

Lord Beaverbrook

Canadian War Records Office (CWRO)

Following his escape from Antwerp, Bristol-born Ivor Castle recruited by Lord Beaverbrook to record the Canadian army’s contribution to the war effort on the Western Front. Occasionally controversial, Castle took the first picture of a British tank, for which The Mirror paid the War Office the staggering sum of £1,000. Castle’s images appear later in this article.

From 1915 Horace Grant worked with Britain’s French Allies, covering the war from their perspective while Thomas Grant became the British Official photographer in Salonika. On his return to Britain the boat he was traveling on torpedoed but Thomas managed to grab his camera and take pictures of the doomed ship even as the crew were manning the lifeboats.

Lt Ernest Brooks

The early freedoms of press photographers curtailed but it it was not until March 1916 when the first official war photographer sent to the Western Front.

“Brooks has no nerves at all. Day after day he goes poking his camera’s nose into places which any normal man would shun by as many miles as possible.”

– Unknown British Officer

The government turned first to The Daily Mirror’s Ernest Brooks, who had exceptional connections to the royal family having grown-up on the Windsor estate where his father worked when Brooks was a boy. Before the war began Brooks known as a portrait photographer but he had worked in Gallipoli and his more posed style suited the army’s propaganda aims. Following the war, Lt Brooks reputation high enough to earn him a job as the official photographer to the Royal Family.

Royal Family

Brooks undoubtedly used his royal connections to good effect, getting access to King George V on several occasions, along with Belgium’s King Albert I.

As an official photographer for the British Army, Brooks one of at least fourteen such men serving on the Western Front.

Lieutenant Ivor Castle

Lieutenant Ivor Castle appointed by Beaverbrook in the late summer of 1916 to replace the first CWRO photographer Captain Harry Knobel, former commander of the 8th Battalion. Knobel’s health began to suffer, his asthma exacerbated by his work as a battlefield photographer and previous exposure to gas. Not unlikely he was also suffering from PTSD. Captain Knobel captured the last of his 650 images on 14 August 1916 at Renighelst. Ivor Castle quickly appointed a Temporary Lieutenant two days later.

Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Ernest Graham McKenzie, O.C. 26th Battalion, Brigadier-General Henry Edward Burstall, C.B., G.O.C.R.A. Canadian Corps; Lieutenant-General Sir Julian Hedworth George Byng, K.C.B., KCMG., MVO, His Majesty The King, Brigadier-General George Jasper Farmar, C.M.G.; Brigadier-General William Bethune Lindsay, C.M.G., Brigadier-General A.C. Currie, C.M.G., Brigadier-General Percy Pollexfen de Blaquiere Radcliffe. RA., BG., GS, Cdn. Corps; Colonel Gilbert Lafayette Foster, C.B., Lieut. Sir Bertram Norman Sergison-Brooke, Bt.,ADC. Cdn. Corps Commdr., Brigadier-General Robert Rennie, MVO., DSO (The Queen’s Own Rifles); Brig.-General Huntly Douglas Brodie Ketchen, Colonel Percival Edward Thacker (Lord Strathcona’s Horse), C.M.G., Lieutenant-Colonel Norman William Webber, D.S.O., Lieutenant-Colonel G.R. Frith, D.S.O.; Lieutenant-Colonel G.S. Kearsley, D.S.O., Brigadier-General Frederick William Hill, D.S.O., Brigadier-General James Harold Elmsley, D.S.O.; Lieutenant-Colonel R.J.F. Hayter, D.S.O., Lieutenant-Colonel James Howden MacBrien, D.S.O.

Visit of General Sir Sam Hughes to the Front

Only three days later, Lieutenant William Ivor Castle in action, awaiting the arrival of General Sir Sam Hughes for his tour of the front. Lieutenant Ivor Castle attached to Hughes’ staff for his first assignment by Colonel Murphy.

Arrival at Boulogne O-651 to O-655

On 17 August 1916, General Sir Sam Hughes arrived in Boulogne-sur-Mer for his tour of the Western Front. Shortly after his return to Canada, the troublesome militia minister sacked.

Note images O-665 to O-668 CENSORED. The censor usually acted if he deemed anything sensitive, should it fall into enemy hands, and he knew very well they would.

The first series illustrates the hap-hazard chronology of the O-series. O-655, last in sequence, actually first image captured. The remainder of this series appears in proper sequence.

Addressing First Canada Division O-656 to O-658

The following day, at 8:00 am on 18 August 1916, General Hughes inspected troops of the 8th and 10th battalions of the 1st Canadian Division at Blendecques. Hughes accompanied by Major-General Arthur Currie and Brigadier-General Loomis. Note war diaries reveal Hughes inspection on the 18th, yet some images from the 17th will follow.

The adjutant of the 1st Canadian Division likely not a fan of General Hughes, as he only mentioned it was Lord Kitchener who visited the troops in the afternoon. Leaving Blendecques, Lieutenant Ivor Castle headed to the Somme.

Captured Trenches O-659 to O-663

O-664 a mismatch to the N-series (MIKAN 3517028) has no image. O-665 to O-668 censored, and likely belonged to the start of the images captured in Arras.

Arras O-669 to O-673

Gen. Sir Sam Hughes and party looking at ruins in Arras.

School of Instruction O-674 to O-680

Brig-Gen Seely O-681 to O-691

John Edward Bernard Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone, Secretary of State for War for the two years prior to the Great War, before being forced to resign as a result of the The Curragh incident of 20 March 1914, generally known as the Curragh mutiny.

Winston Churchill

As General Jack Seely, he led one of the last great cavalry charges in history at the Battle of Moreuil Wood on his war horse Warrior in March 1918. Seely a great friend of Sir Winston Churchill and the only former cabinet minister to go to the front in 1914 and still be there four years later.

Farewell Sam Hughes O-692 to O-696

Likely a mixture of the farewell, and introduction to Hughes as the 2nd Canadian Infantry Battalion war diary confirms inspection on 17 August 1916 by the Minister of Militia. The difficulty becomes evident in assigning a date of either 17 or 18 August 1916 to the first set of images which must have been presented to the CWRO for publication at the same time.

Lieutenant Ivor Castle relocated to Ypres in late August. Not for long however, as he would return again to the Somme for the Battle of Flers-Courcelette to capture his iconic image of the first tank in battle.

Ruins of Ypres O-697 to O-719

The Swans of Ypres O-701 to O-702

Lieutenant Ivor Castle not the first to capture images of these beauties. In fact, one of the last images captured by his predecessor Captain Harry Knobel – the Swans of Ypres.

Hill 60 O-703 to O-719

Random censored images in this series include O-705, O-708, O-709, O-712 and O-718. Captain P F Fleming of the 60th Battalion (captured in O-715) visited the front lines on 24 August 1916, suggesting Castle took all these images on this date.

Note the last six images censored, and may belong to the next (massive) Battle of Courcelette series.

Howitzer in Action O-719 to O-722

The first two images in the sequence of particular interest to the author, as I cannot deny the “No. 1” on this howitzer may be my great-uncle, Sergeant Francis Patrick Walshe, No 2 Heavy Battery in preliminary action to the Battle of Flers-Courcelette.

Sgt F P Walshe

The war diaries of Sgt Walshe’s brigade suggest the images above, and the one captured in 2015 below, the same location where he was wounded by a premature detonation of a shell on 3 September 1916. I only wish he had turned toward the camera.

A/Bbdr R F Walshe

Sgt Walshe’s younger brother also served with the CFA in the Great War. Lt William Rider Rider captured O-2657 in May of 1918.

I cannot deny the man about to catch the 18-pdr shell is my grandfather, A/Bbdr Richard Francis Walshe of the 61st Field Battery, 14th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery. A/Bbdr ‘Dick’ Walshe had visited his brother ‘Frank’ convalescing in Britain before he travelled to the Western Front in August of 1917. Again, I only wish he had faced the camera. My grandfather easily identifiable, to me, in several group photos before, during, and after the Great War.

British Columbia Elections O-723 to 735

The series returns to the Somme, immediately following the British Columbia Elections. A soldier identified as a member of the 7th Battalion voting in the election held 14 September 1916 (10 September 1916 on the Western Front).

Note O-730 to O-735 censored. Five days later, the opening of the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. Lieutenant Ivor Castle’s best work follows, as do the faked images. Pay particular attention to the images of the wounded, and German PoWs.

Battle of Courcelette O-736 to O-1032

Wounded O-736 to O-743

Some have suggested the wounded man, lower-left in O-736 is delirious. He is quite happy, in fact, having just received the news from the medical orderly his Blighty has earned him his ticket home.

Note some of the heavy gun images ‘misplaced’ in this sequence.

Heavy Guns O-744 to O-749

Wounded O-750 to O-759

Again, note several heavy gun images among this sequence.

Officer helping a battered Canadian to Dressing Station. O-760

A Captain (likely of the Canadian Army Medical Corps), wearing a ribbon for the Military Cross above his left chest pocket, accompanying the soldier, wounded in the arm, leg, and face. At right, another photographer, likely Canadian War Records Office official kinematographer Lt. Oscar Bovill, also filming.

A Canadian Battalion going over the top O-873 to O-876

Lieutenant Ivor Castle suggests he was in the front line trenches. Unlike his successor, Lt William Rider Rider, it must be noted Castle never had a front line assignment. All his images are captured from the rear lines, support trenches, field aid posts, field ambulances, advanced dressing stations, etc.

My first welcome among the Canadians was not too encouraging: but I have to blame the enemy for that. For more than two miles I had to go through shell-fire, and the ground seemed as though it had been visited by an earthquake. The taking of photographs under such circumstances is a disagreeable business, and you miss many opportunities when the shells are round. You think you are going to secure a very great picture, but the German shrapnel comes along and you seek safety very quickly in the nearest trench.

Taking photographs of the men going over the parapet is quite exciting. Nothing, of course, can be arranged. You sit or crouch in the first-line trench while the enemy do a little strafing, and if you are lucky you get your pictures. But when you read in official communiqués that an ‘attack was launched at daybreak,’ you can imagine that photography is impossible.

I. Castle, ‘With a camera on the Somme, by the Official Photographer with the Canadian Forces’, Canada in Khaki, London, Canadian War Records Office, 1917, p68.

Note also among Lieutenant Ivor Castle’s first two hundred images, the CWRO had no opportunity, or reason to doctor any of his images.

O-873 Manipulated

Fixing Bayonets Previous to a Charge by Canadians on the Somme, O-873. The men laden with gear and carried practice rifles with canvas breech covers, while additional equipment scattered along the trench wall behind them.

During the process of developing and printing the photos, the breech covers removed through image manipulation and replaced with standard breeches, and new hands drawn in.

O-874 Manipulated

A Canadian Battalion Go Over the Top O-874. In the manipulated image, shells bursting in the background later added to the scene from other negatives. In many versions of the final print, the first man out of the trench appears to be making a curious gesture with his hand.

The uppermost man, the one making a curious hand gesture, actually thumbing his nose at Lieutenant Ivor Castle for photographing a training session.

O-875 Manipulated

The third photograph, The Last Over the Top, shows a single shell burst in the sky between the two men, added to the image during the printing process.

This famous image later found to have been taken at a rehearsal for the attack, while shell-bursts added from photographs of shell-bursts at a trench mortar school near St. Pol.

O-876 Manipulated

Shell bursts from the nearby St Pol trench-mortar school montaged into the image.

This famous W I Castle image later found to have been taken at a rehearsal for the attack.

Process

Although Lieutenant Ivor Castle staged the previous photographic series, he also worked on and behind the front lines, taking bona fide pictures of soldiers’ wartime experiences. After being vetted by a field censor, his glass-plate negatives sent to the CWRO, numbered and given captions. Following further censoring by the War Office, the photographs and captions distributed to the media through London’s Central News Press Agency. This turnaround typically took a few days to complete.

Apology

Castle wrote a one-page essay for the CWRO publication Canada in Khaki (1917), in which he skated over the fakery.

“Taking photographs of the men going over the parapets is quite exciting.
Nothing, of course, can be arranged. You sit or crouch in the first-line
trench while the enemy do a little strafing, and if you are lucky you get
your pictures.”

Ivor Castle

A German barrage during attack by Canadians on the Somme O-883 to O-893

Eleven images in this sequence, possibly along with O-820 when Lt Oscar Bovill used his Moy & Bastie cine camera to capture an allied barrage.

The shell explosion close to what appears to be a photographic team in O-883 quite suspicious.

A British Tank O-984 to O-989

This series of photographs, when published in the London newspapers, showed a tank in action for the first time, and garnered photographer W.I. Castle a 1000 pound prize.

A British Tank. November, 1916. This appears to be a Mk. I Male tank, with steering tail (rear wheel) and Solomon-style camouflage scheme. The specific tank pictured may have been used in the battle of Flers-Courcelette during the Somme offensive in 1916.

Sir Robert Borden Visit O-1033 to O-1052

29th Infantry Battalion advancing over “No Man’s Land” through the German barbed wire and heavy fire during the Battle of Vimy Ridge O-1162 Manipulated

This a manipulated image composed of multiple negatives. The original first published in London’s Illustrated War News on 25 April 1917, with the soldiers marching from right to left through the frame, but no dead bodies.

The manipulated version enlarged and first put on display in an exhibition of Canadian official war photographs in July 1917.

These the retouched version of the original photograph (MIKAN No. 3233066), used in the CWRO exhibitions of battle photographs, with added shell bursts and dead soldiers in the foreground. Note the absence of the O-series number in both exposures.

The bodies originated from MIKAN No. 3233067, O-1188. Photographer Captain William Ivor Castle MIKAN No. 3192389

The image, as it appeared at Grafton Galleries in July 1917.

Types of Prisoners captured by Canadians at Vimy O-1211 to O-1228

Thirteen images of German PoWs suggest there are ‘types’ of prisoners.

Troops wished for a Blighty and their ticket home. Alternatively, spending the rest of the war in captivity (wounded, or not), very much preferable to death.

Types of Prisoners

• Happy
• Wounded and Happy

Friend or foe, the greatest fear – to have fallen in battle, and to have become one of The Missing, denying their family any closure.

Final Images

Lt William Rider Rider began his service on 24 April 1917 with the Canadian War Records Office (CWRO), immediately following the publication of Lieutenant Ivor Castle’s faked No Man’s Land. At first, Rider worked as Castle’s assistant from 4 June 1917.

Shortly thereafter, according to Lt Rider, Lieutenant Ivor Castle travelled to Britain to organize the Second Exhibition of Canadian Official War Photographs, and simply never returned to the Front. How could he? Castle’s reputation at the front finished among the troops.

In an interview conducted in 1973, Rider noted how difficult it was for him to photograph soldiers because they were accustomed to Castle’s instructions on how to pose and act. At first, the troops did not trust him, which revealed what they thought of Castle.

“Do you want us to go over the top for you”?

“How about another fake one”?

Castle returned to the UK a couple of weeks later. From September 1917 no images can be attributed to Ivor Castle.

Tom Longboat to O-1496 to O-1499

Private Tom Longboat and the little French paper boy among Rider’s first images.

Lt Rider returned to England in February 1919. His darkroom technician, Sgt W Hallet, remained in France to assist Lts Hopwood and Jarché. They captured the last 700 images in the series in April and May of 1919.

O-SERIES	PHOTOGRAPHER
O-1 to O-650	Captain Harry Knobel
O-651 to O-1500	Lieutenant Ivor Castle
O-1501 to O-4431	Lieutenant William Rider Rider
O-4432 to O-4705	Hon Lt Frederick Hopwood and Hon Lt Albert Louis Jarché.

Rider later oversaw the transfer from Britain to Canada, of the entire collection of Official Canadian photographs.

Yvonne

One of the first sequences taken by Rider, the marvelous, and mysterious, Yvonne – the railway crossing keeper. In February of 2024, Marc Vaillant and 中体简体 helped CEFRG reveal the identity of Yvonne, and the location of these images.

Fernande Elise Hautecoeur

Marc Vaillant of Chocques and his friend 中体简体 determined the mademoiselle is Fernande Elise Hautecoeur who later married Alcide Poulain. Fernande was born 4-10-1902 and died 2-3-1967, making her just shy of 16 years of age at this time.

Yvonne

The younger girl seen in the images is her sister Yvonne Antoinette Hautecouer, born 20-04-1906. She would be 10 years of age. Note also in the background of O-1450, their mother, Antoinette Clémence Wacheux.

Agnières

The railway crossing is at Agnières just past Aubigny-en-Artois. One building still remains – the capstone on one window helped with the identification as the structure’s exterior heavily modified.

Documents often mention the dungeon, known as the chastel et basse-­cour (chastel and farmyard) of Agnières. This castle was located eighty meters from the church, on the hill opposite that where the village stands today (in 1900).

Agnières burned by Edward III, on his march from Grandvilliers to Poix, a few days before Crécy. It would have been destroyed again in 1415, after Agincourt.

Castle’s Return to UK

On 24 February 1917, Lieutenant Ivor Castle To Be Temporary Captain (General List). On 24 August 1918, Castle brought to the notice of the Secretary of State for War for valuable services rendered in connection with the war.

In June 1919, Captain Ivor Castle appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire. SoS from the CWRO on 30 June 1919 upon retiring in the British Isles.

The Mirror Roll of Honour

The following Daily Mirror journalists known to have served either as press or official photographers within one or more theatres of the Great War

Ernest Brooks

Brooks the first official British photographer and the most prolific. Served on the Western Front, Italy, Gallipoli and occasional work for the British Admiralty.

David McLellan

Appointed as an official photographer in December 1917. McLellan especially noted for his work capturing the huge scale of operations on the Front while working for the British propaganda department. Served on the Western Front, Home Front, British Official.

Armando Console

Also appointed in December 1917. Served on the Western Front, British Official.

William Rider Rider

Served on the Western Front, Canadian Official. Rider, his middle name. Often incorrectly referred to as William Rider-Rider.

Bernard Grant

Covered the outbreak from August 1914 to Nov 1914. Enlisted in the Navy in early 1915 and became British Official, British Admiralty photographer.

Horace Grant

Covered the outbreak from August 1914 to Nov 1914. Worked with the French army from 1915.

Thomas Grant

Covered the outbreak from August 1914 to Nov 1914. Enlisted in 1915 and became the British Official photographer in Salonika. Lobbied heavily to be sent to the Western Front, joined the Royal Air Force in 1918.

George Mewes

Covered the Eastern Front and was uniquely appointed Official Photographer to the Russian Army.

Ivor William Castle

The Daily Mirror’s first photographer. Served on the Western Front, occasional work for the British Admiralty, Canadian Official.

2023

“…the extent to which Castle edited his photographs is unknown…”

Canada’s History Carla-Jean Stokes — Posted September 14, 2023

2024

One staged battle image sequence (Over the Top), and one faked battle image (No Man’s Land), constituted the faked images of Lieutenant Ivor Castle.

CEFRG – February 2024

CWRO Fonds

Appraisal and disposition of government records at Library and Archives Canada (LAC) focuses primarily on acquiring the “right” records to best document a given function of the Government of Canada. Once records pass into LAC’s care, access is provided through an inconsistent approach of online descriptive records and on-site finding aids, often with minimal or incorrect contextualizing information that hinders their overall discoverability and use.

Lack of description, or even poor description, along with the failure of the archives to explain the context of creation in an increasingly disparately accessed archival world, can lead to misunderstandings of past government messaging and functions while shrouding evidence of government actions, goals, and perspectives, including those directed toward privileged or marginalized members of society.

Sarah Cook, Archival Interventions and Disentangling Legacy
Records, Archivaria 92 (Fall 2021), pp. 48- 73

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