A pile of sketchbooks

This week we have a post from Steve Shannon.

D/DLI 7/920/11(3) Watercolour illustration, by Robert Mauchlen, of animal transport lines in open countryside [in France], captioned Transport, n.d. [1917]

People often arrived at the reception desk at the DLI Museum carrying bags or small boxes of family treasures that they wished to donate. Amongst the most memorable were two bags brought in one morning by an elderly lady, who had, some fifteen years before, generously donated her father’s Military Cross and First World War campaign medals. 

She explained that whilst preparing to move to a smaller house, she had found some items belonging to her late father and asked if the museum would be interested. She then emptied the contents of the two carrier bags on to the table.

Would the museum be interested?

D/DLI 7'920/11(15) Watercolour illustration caricature, by Robert Mauchlen, of an officer, captioned T.O. [Transport Officer], n.d. [1917]

On the table were her father’s sketchbooks with pencil and coloured sketches drawn in the trenches and behind the front line. I turned over the pages and discovered ‘The Colonel’ – Roland Bradford – asleep in a deck chair; soldiers drinking rum; the interiors of dug outs; studies of French civilians; and views of ruined buildings and shattered landscapes. There were also vivid coloured sketches of British soldiers sheltering from the rain in a ruined trench; of a frightened German soldier being taken prisoner; and of infantry attacking the infamous Butte de Warlencourt.

Would the museum be interested? 

D/DLI 7/920/8(20) Colour pencil sketch, by Robert Mauchlen, of soldiers gathered around a table in a courtyard, captioned Signallers at HQ, n.d. [1915] 

Robert Mauchlen’s sketchbooks were one of the most significant donations of Great War material to the museum in my time there. I used his sketches in the museum’s new display, opened in 2000, and in a Somme exhibition in 2006; Harry Moses used them in his book The Gateshead Gurkhas; and they featured in the University of Durham’s major Somme exhibition of this year. And, no doubt, his sketches will be used over and over again whenever more than just photographs are needed to illustrate the First World War.

Captain Robert Mauchlen, photo from the DLI Collection

Born in Newcastle in 1885, Robert Mauchlen was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 9th Battalion DLI in October 1914 and served with that battalion until late 1916. On 1 October 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, he was awarded the Military Cross for his bravery in an attack near Eaucourt L'Abbaye under very heavy fire. It was in this action that his Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Roland Bradford, gained his Victoria Cross. 

For the rest of the war, Robert Mauchlen was at the Army’s Lewis Gun School. When the 9th Battalion reformed in 1920, Major Mauchlen rejoined, before finally retiring in 1924. 

Robert Mauchlen was an architect in civilian life and much of his work, especially in Northumberland, still survives. He also designed the War Memorial lychgate at St Cuthbert’s Church in Bellingham. 

Whilst serving with 9 DLI, Robert Mauchlen designed in 1916 two wooden memorial crosses. The first, originally erected in High Wood, is now in the DLI Collection. The second, originally on the summit of the Butte de Warlencourt, is now in the DLI’s Regimental Chapel in Durham Cathedral.

Robert Mauchlen died in 1972. His son, Douglas, died in North Africa serving with the RAF. He was 20 years old.