Trench Art

George Victor Stanley, headmaster at ???? ,  kept five albums after WW1.

Contains conventional entries from friends in the lead-up to the war. The story of George Stanley will be told in Ephemera, later.

The Red Book contains entries from 49 men of the 2nd Northern Coy NCC from the time they enlisted and went abroad in 1916 to the mutiny at Blargies in December 1917. 

George Stanley clearly had a leadership role within the NCC. He was a Private like most of the other non-combatants, but assumed the role of coordinator / facilitator and custodian of group memories. The real leader,  Corporal Arthur Britton, had been wounded at Gallipoli in 1915. He was very much part of the group and gave whole-hearted support. Most of the others were conscientious objectors who were willing to go to war but only on the condition that they would not bear arms.

George Stanley passed this sketchbook around the group during their time at Calais. Most of the names appear in the Red Book.  

This is the seminal book of the collection - an intensely personal, passionate book of beliefs from 15 young men facing court martial for refusing to bear arms.