Henry Ogle's sketchbook

I had an exciting find recently - a WW1 sketchbook with a beautiful watercolour of St Servan.

Henry Ogle sm St Servan.jpg

It was not the watercolour that attracted me most. It was the fact that the sketchbook came from the Military Hospital at Etaples. There were signed and dated sketches from 1917, including one titled 'An Anzac's Dream'.

I wondered if I could trace the artists.

And I did. I found Henry Ogle, who painted the hospital sketch on the opening page. There's a whole book about Henry Ogle and his wartime sketches and journals. It's long out of print but I found a nice first edition. In it, Henry talks about his time at the hospital and the desperate need to keep spirits high among the deeply traumatised casualties from Passchendaele.

I've added Henry Ogle's sketchbook to the home page.