Note that you will see images in the virtual map that enlarge by clicking on them. But Google no longer permit the provided URLs to link
At the barber hut Belton Park, Grantham / Jack.
Author/Creator: Paterson, John Martin, 1887?-1918, artist.
Notes: Inscribed on sheet lower right: Soldier getting his hair cut before going to France. I am sitting on the form waiting to get mine cut.
Subjects: England; War War I; Belton Park; Grantham; barbering; barber shops
Date created: 14 June 1918.
Series/Collection: Album of sketches of Devonport Military Hospital, England and Australian soldiers in France, 1914-1918
Series/Collection: Album of drawings and sketches by J. Paterson.
The drying room. Aust. Machine Gun Coy. Belton Park near Grantham. Eng. / J. M. Paterson.
Author/Creator: Paterson, John Martin, 1887?-1918, artist.
Notes: Australian Commonwealth Military Forces embossed stamp on card upper left.
Subjects: picture; England; War War I; Belton Park; Grantham; drying rooms
Date created: May 4, 1918.
Sergeant: - "Squad - number !" / J. M. Paterson. Note the bayonet training sacks in the background. The photograph from Tadworth Camp, Surrey below shows these sacks in greater detail.
Author/Creator: Paterson, John Martin, 1887?-1918, artist.
Subjects: England; War War I; soldiers; inspection; sergeants; drill routines
Date created: 1917.
Instruction on use of bayonet. Charging dummies (Tadworth Camp). © IWM Q 33708
Part of Alma Wood Range. Grantham. England, May 9th 1918 / JMP.
Author/Creator: Paterson, John Martin, 1887?-1918, artist.
Notes: Australian Commonwealth Military Forces embossed stamp on card upper left.
Subjects: picture; England; War War I; soldiers; Grantham; shooting ranges
Date created: May 9th, 1915.
Resting in long grass - smoke ho! Belton Park Camp. Grantham June 1918 / JMP.
Author/Creator: Paterson, John Martin, 1887?-1918, artist.
Notes: Australian Commonwealth Military Forces embossed stamp on card upper left.
Subjects: picture; England; War War I; soldiers; Grantham; smoking; Bolton Park Camp
Date created: 1918.
Australian with gas mask on. Grantham June 6th 1918 / Jack. Note the shoulder flash Aussie. This term was first used in 1915 in the context of the Great War.
Author/Creator: Paterson, John Martin, 1887?-1918, artist.
Subjects: picture; England; War War I; Grantham; Australians; gas masks; soldiers
Date created: [6 June 1918]
One of the gateways leading to the Aust. Machine Gun Camp. Belton Park 19/5/18 / JMP. This shows an entrance cut into the 1690 Park wall. The location of this entrance is probably that shown on the 1916 map towards the west end of Londonthorpe Lane, meaning the Australians were accommodated in A, B, C, D Sections.
Author/Creator:
Paterson, John Martin, 1887?-1918, artist.
Subjects:
picture; England; War War I; Belton Park; Grantham; Australian Machine Gun Camp
Date created:
5 May 1918.
Men of No. 7 Squad, 86 Machine Gun Corps Course, grouped around a Hotchkiss machine gun loaded with ammunition strips during training at Harrowby Miniature Range near the Australian Imperial Force, Belton Park Depot. A Hotchkiss machine gun is set up in the foreground, ammunition in round canisters piled beside it.
The overlap wooden huts in the background are identifiable from the camp map as an other ranks hut.
Grantham 27 November 1917
There is little of interest to chronicle from this Depot, things being practically where they were when I wrote. Rain, wind and slush - in fact everything in that line but snow - has been rationed out religiously everyday and you're out of fashion if you haven't had a few stiff joints and a 'graveyard' cough ...
New Zealand Machine Gun Corps
The New Zealand Expeditionary Force based their Machine Gun Corps Reserve Depot at Grantham (1916-19), on the slopes below Bellmount Tower.
Men of the 34th Specialist Company, NZ Machine Gun Corps, circa 1917. The print belonged to Alister Ross (service no.62883, pictured front left) who enlisted in August 1917. The picture was probably taken while in camp in England, preparing for the front, in later 1917. Likely Belton Park, the huts are identical (South Canterbury Museum). Notice they are sitting on duckboards seen in another photo from the same museum. Note also their NZ Lemon Squeezer hats.
Portrait of Lance Corporal Alister Ross (service no.62883), circa 1918. Ross served with the 34th Specialist Company, NZ Machine Gun Corps, enlisting in August 1917 and being disharged in April 1919. Ross had been promoted to Lance Corporal on 20 November 1917 (South Canterbury Museum).
One of the three YMCA huts in Belton Park. The three soldiers in the foreground are wearing Hospital Blues, i.e. are patients in the military hospital. The seated one on the right wears a NZ Lemon Squeezer hat. The slouch hat to the left could be either an Australian or a NZ soldier. The Hospital Blues uniform was worn by those patients who could get out of bed. Also known as the blue invalid uniform, convalescent blues or hospital undress. They were a flannel type material of Oxford blue hue with a single breasted suit and trousers. Each had a white lining. The tie would have been red and the shirt white. Regimental caps were worn and medals were displayed on the left breast.
Nearby Harlaxton catered for training commonwealth air crew.