Stock shots from the archive: A is for Army
Once again it's time to look at a selection of photographs drawn from the 91Èȱ¬ News stills archive. This time I've started at the beginning, and selected a number of pictures from the first cabinet, A is for Army.
There's more than a few thousand pictures under this heading, but in keeping with earlier posts I'm looking at the oldest pictures held as colour slides, those that date back to the late 1960s, '70s and early '80s.
We start with a fairly simple shot taken at a Ministry of Defence media event at Aldershot. The entry on the index card reads: Camouflaged Royal Engineer on training exercise at Aldershot, 19 July 1981 by photographer Gerry Hawkins.
This is one of a number from the same event where the photographer has shot a range of pictures that capture the soldier in number of poses, placed in various parts of the frame.
This was done to allow it to be used behind the news presenter in the days when some programmes used stills as a full frame backdrop. It's also a very dirty slide, one I haven't had time to clean up yet.
The next one interested me in that it's a well composed, striking image of Army helicopters, again I assume at a media event. The index card provides few details, there is no date or photographer mentioned at all, the only clue is the silver glass 35mm slide mount it is held in. These are only found on the earliest photos in the collection, so I'd guess it's from sometime pre 1970.
These two soldiers seem to have been caught in a blast of flash at Alexander Barracks in Pirbright, again there are no further details given, though it is in the same silver mount as the shot above.
The next two pictures are filed under the Army Catering section of the index, two very different views yet both taken at the same time. They are both recorded as picturing an Army catering competition at Aldershot Barracks in May 1978.
There are very few details recorded for the next picture of an Army ambulance, except to say it was taken during a military exercise by 91Èȱ¬ photographer Willie Smith, there is no date. The "wounded" chap doesn't seem to have settled into his role very well.
The last picture is from an Army recruitment selection centre at Corsham.
That's it for this week, if you experienced any of these events, or recognize any one in the pictures, then please comment below.
You can see previous posts in this series here:
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