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| John Singleton Copley Major George Leathes, Royal Dragoons ca. 1780 oil on canvas Colchester and Ipswich Museums |
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| William Beechey Captain John Clayton Cowell ca. 1796 oil on canvas National Army Museum, London |
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| Jean-Pierre-Frédéric Barrois An Officer of the Army of Occupation, Paris, 1816 1816 oil on canvas Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire Museum, York |
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| Anonymous British Artist W.M. Giles, the last Town Crier ca. 1929 oil on canvas Brighton and Hove Museums and Art Galleries |
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| Charles Tunnicliffe PC12 1935 oil on canvas West Park Museum, Macclesfield, Cheshire |
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| George Harcourt Aletha Harcourt, Ambulance Driver 1942 oil on canvas Imperial War Museum, London |
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| Ivor Williams Soldier ca. 1940-45 oil on canvas Aberystwyth University School of Art Museum and Galleries, Wales |
The Lads of the Village
The lads of the village, we read in the lay,
By medalled commanders are muddled away,
And the picture that the poet makes is not very gay.
Poet, let the red blood flow, it makes the pattern better,
And let the tears flow, too, and grief stand that is their begetter,
And let man have his self-forged chain and hug every fetter.
For without the juxtaposition of muddles, medals and clay,
Would the picture be so very much more gay,
Would it not be a frivolous dance upon a summer's day?
Oh sing no more: Away with the folly of commanders.
This will not make a better song upon the field of Flanders,
Or upon any field of experience where pain makes patterns the poet slanders.
– Stevie Smith (ca. 1938)
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| Anna Zinkeisen St John Ambulance Brigade Cadets 1952 oil on canvas Museum of the Order of St John, London |
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| James McBey Lord Rowallan as Chief Scout 1957 oil on canvas Scouts Heritage Service, London |
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| John Worsley Royal Signals Technician Repairing a Radio 1959 oil on canvas Royal Signals Museum, Blandford Forum, Dorset |
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| Roy Parsons Caroline Bowen in Nurse's Uniform 1966 oil on board Dorset County Museum, Dorchester |
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| Eric Meadus Portrait of a Spanish Soldier 1970 oil on board Southampton City Art Gallery |
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| David Everitt Soldier 1975 oil on canvas Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery, Warwickshire |
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| Robert Darby Miss A.E. Vallely, Matron of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea 1990 oil on canvas Royal Hospital, Chelsea |
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| Stephen Fuller The Callington Town Crier and the Liskeard Town Crier ca. 2005 oil on board Liskeard Town Council, Cornwall |