George Hackney: WW1 in Photographs
George Hackney was born in Belfast in 1888 and joined the Young Citizen Volunteers (YCV) from the Boy’s brigade in 1912. He was a committed Christian, enthusiast rambler and member of the Co-Operative Holidays Association, and a talented amateur photographer. After the outbreak of the First World War, George was part of a mass enlistment of YCV members in September 1914, when the YCV was incorporated into 14th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles. Taking his new Klimax camera with him, George was sent to training camps in Donegal, Antrim and the south of England before sailing to France in October 1915. He survived the carnage of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916 when so many of his friends and fellow soldiers were killed or wounded, but was invalided out soon after with shell shock and ‘Defective Action of the Heart’ (DAH), and was eventually sent to Northcliffe Hospital in Sheffield to recuperate in September 1916. He spent the rest of the war in Ireland and England, working as a trainer.
George photographed each stage of this journey and this exhibition, based on digital copies of original material, traces his steps from raw recruit to battle-seasoned veteran in rare and special personal photographs of the day-to-day realities of war in the early twentieth century.
Suitable for
Any age
Admission
Free admission
Website
www.nmni.com.1916
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