Colourising the First World War

“Colour adds another dimension to an image and helps bring the subjects ‘to life’ in a way that black and white images often can’t.”

The Lost Tommies in Colour, Tom Marshall (2016)

For a few years now, Tom Marshall has been colourising black and white photographs. As his techniques and methods continue to improve, he’s been fortunate enough to turn this amazing hobby into a job with home-grown, PhotograFix.

“I have worked with some of the world’s greatest photo archives and museum collections, with publishers and historians, and with private family photos that each have their own unique stories to tell.”

Using mainly Adobe Photoshop, Tom essentially colour washes the entire image, effectively making an individual painting. It may take several hours to complete, but Tom insists that it allows people, especially younger generations, to connect with the people they see.

“It’s a sad truth that black and white images are often ignored or go unnoticed.”

Spending most of his time researching the correct colours for uniforms, buildings, animals, and the like, Tom claims that sometimes it boils down to an “educated guess or using a degree of artistic license to choose a colour that looks ‘right.’” Luckily for Tom, subjects like the First World War are heavily documented and can be researched in libraries’ reference books or on internet forums.

His next project has been influenced by Australian journalist Ross Coulthart’s discovery of World War One photographs. In 2011, a team of researchers, led by Coulthart, made a remarkable discovery when they uncovered a collection of hundreds of photographs from the First World War. The images are now forever immortalised and featured in a book by Coulthart, entitled The Lost Tommies.

The Lost Tommies by Ross Coulthart (2016)

 

“It was Doug Banks, who runs the WWI Colourised Photos page on Facebook, that introduced me to the project and my next challenge.

“When the BBC’s One Show began a public plea to try and identify the lost Tommies from the photos, contributors to Doug’s page rose to the challenge and started colourising the fascinating images to bring the subject’s to life and try and identify them.

“Of the hundred images, I chose the particular pictures for the sharpness of the facial details, as they stood out as having real feeling behind their eyes; like they’d seen things most of us couldn’t imagine.”

Lance Corporal in the Royal Army Medical Corps

 

 

“I was drawn to the eyes in this photograph. They look like the eyes of a man who has seen too much.”

“When colourising the images it’s impossible to know the subject’s eye colour from the black & white image. As his hair is light and fair, blue eyes are a guess.”

 

An unknown British Colonel

“He is wearing the Military Cross medal ribbon, but I have not been able to work out the other ribbons. Based on his age, rank and the shades of grey, I have painted these as Boer War campaign medals, though this is merely speculation as I don’t know his identity.”

 

Soldier of the Durham Light Infantry

“He is sporting the ribbon of the Military Cross and may well have been a well known man.”

 

A soldier of the British West Indies Regiment

 

“An unconventional pose, highlighting the more casual approach to many of these photos.”

“This man has Two Years Overseas Service chevrons on right sleeve and a Good Conduct (Three Years) chevron on his left sleeve.”

 

A rather tired looking soldier from the Army Service Corps

 

A soldier sporting an injured hand

 

A soldier from the Middlesex Regiment

 

 

A soldier of the Army Service Corps

 

 

Unknown British Tommy from the ‘A’ Squadron, the North Irish Horse Regiment.

Original images courtesy of Ross Coulthart, author of ‘The Lost Tommies’ & The Kerry Stokes Collection – Louis & Antoinette Thuillier.

Tom Marshall would like to thank Ross Coulthart, head of the research team that uncovered these fantastic images and author of The Lost Tommies, for his permission to share these colourised versions.

If you should recognise any of the men featured in this post, please get in touch!