2 minute read
Martin Barraud: The artist behind Tommy
CREATOR OF THE TOMMY ICON AND TOMMY CLUB FOUNDING PATRON
Tommy Club Founding Patron, Martin Barraud, is an installation artist and award-winning conceptual photographer. Martin created the iconic Tommy and more recently is helping RBLI in its very successful VE Day Campaign
Advertisement
wemake-youthink.com
Kent-based artist Martin Barraud began working with RBLI when he created the ‘Tommy’ for the There But Not There campaign.
In 2018, hundreds of Tommy silhouettes, manufactured by veterans at Britain’s Bravest Manufacturing Company, began to spring up all over the UK to mark 100 years since end of the First World War.
Barraud’s Tommy icon was inspired by a striking photograph of a WW1 soldier standing on the front, taken by English photographer, Horace Nicholls, who captured many wartime images.
A WW1 soldier at the front and the interment of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey, both photographed by Horace Nicholls.
Nicholls was also commissioned to photographed the interment of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. His iconic image captures the resonance and simplicity of one of the revered sites in our military history.
The idea for this sacred landmark is said to have come from Reverend David Railton, who was based in Folkestone and given leave of absence to serve as a chaplain on the Western Front. He did so with distinction, being awarded the Military Cross in 1916 for saving an officer and two men under heavy fire. The proposed tomb would represent all those who had fallen and therefore the identity of the soldier should never been known.
Tommies 'on guard' at The Tomb of the Unknown Warrier for the centenary of the Armistice on 11th November 2018
The process was carefully managed. Four unidentified British servicemen were carefully exhumed from battlefields in Aisne, the Somme, Arras and Ypres. The remains were then placed in plain coffins each covered by Union Flags.
In a private chapel, with only one other officer present, Brigadier L.J. Wyatt with closed eyes, rested his hand on one of the coffins. Neither men were told which battlefield the bodies had come. The other three were taken away for reburial.
The interment took place on 7th November 1920 and servicemen kept watch at each corner of the grave while thousands of mourners filed past.
For the centenary in 2018, a Tommy silhouette was placed at each corner of the Tomb. It recreated a poignant scene described in a manuscript by a chorister, after the Abbey had closed and the crowds had left back in November 1920.
The Tommy has become a national symbol of commemoration
It is no coincidence that Martin Barraud’s Tommy also stands with his head slightly bowed.
The origins of the term Tommy is widely disputed, the most common interpretation is that the term comes from ‘Tommy Atkins’, slang for a common soldier in the British Army.
The term was first established during the nineteenth century, but is particularly associated with World War 1. It is documented that German soldiers would call out to “Tommy” across no man’s land if they wanted to speak to a British soldier.
Over 100 years later, it is fitting that the Tommy icon belongs to Royal British Legion Industries, who have supported veterans since 1919, when injured and sick service personnel returned from the battlefields of WW1.
Tommy represents our history and enables us to commemorate those who have died since.
