Key Events 1914 - 1919
August 1914
British and German military photographers start taking photographs for reconnaissance and intelligence purposes.
Some servicemen flout the ban on personal cameras and begin to take snapshots of their experiences. Amateur snapshots of key events begin to appear in the international press, to the consternation of military planners.
Press photographers are barred from theatres of war but continue to work in areas where they have access.
April 1915
Ernest Brooks, formerly of the Daily Mirror, appointed as first British official photographer (without rank) to cover the Gallipoli landings.
July 1915
Hilton DeWitt Girdwood (a Canadian geographer) appointed as Indian official photographer and cameraman on the Western Front. Generates film and photographs of Indian Expeditionary Force in rear areas, but denied access to the trenches on security grounds.
January 1916
Canadian War Records Office established in London by Lord Beaverbrook.
March 1916
Ernest Brooks appointed as first British official photographer on the Western Front, with a rank of Honorary Lieutenant.
April 1916
First Canadian official photographer, Captain Harry Knobel, appointed to the Western Front, but his health fails after two months.
July 1916
Second British official photographer, John Warwick Brooke (formerly of Topical Press), appointed to the Western Front.
August 1916
Captain Ivor Castle (British photographer, formerly of the Daily Mirror) replaces Knobel as Canadian official photographer.
Indian official photographer Girdwood’s film and photographs discovered to comprise large number of staged scenes and are barred by War Office censors, who are concerned about their ‘potential effect on schoolboys’.
November 1916
Herbert Baldwin (British former Central Press Agency photographer) appointed as first Australian official photographer to the Western Front.
February 1917
British Department of Information established with John Buchan in charge.
May 1917
Australian War Records Office established in London by Official Australian War Correspondent Captain Charles Bean.
June 1917
William Rider-Rider replaces Castle as Canadian official photographer.
Australian official photographer Herbert Baldwin’s health fails. Former polar explorers and photographers Frank Hurley and Hubert Wilkins replace him.
Hurley leaves for Middle East after disputes with Bean about his use of photomontage technique. Wilkins continues to cover the Western Front until end of war.
July 1917
Horace Nicholls appointed as first official photographer on the Home Front in Britain, with a brief to cover the civilian war effort and the role of women workers.
April 1918
George Lewis appointed as second official photographer on the Home Front in Britain.
British Ministry of Information assumes responsibility for official photography.
1919
Hubert Wilkins interrupts his journey back to Australia to record the 1915 battlefields at Gallipoli in colour as well as black and white.
British Ministry of Information closes and transfers official photographs and film to Imperial War Museum. British official photographers continue to work in France and Germany for the Imperial War Museum until the end of the year.
Royal Navy School of Photography founded to provide training for naval official photographers.