When the First World War broke out in 1914, few branches of the British Army would prove as vital—or as overlooked—as the Royal Engineers Signal Service. Before radio communications were widely available, these men kept the front running using telegraph lines, field telephones, despatch riders, and an astonishing level of technical skill under fire.

Today, the photographs that survive from their early training period offer a rare and intimate window into the world of these quietly indispensable soldiers.

Recently, Timefound Archives acquired and researched a small but historically rich set of three original WWI photographic postcards, taken between late 1915 and early 1916, which together tell the story of one recruit’s journey from civilian life to military service.

This blog explores that journey.

🎖 From the Studio to the Signals: A Soldier’s First Steps

The first two photographs in the collection were taken at A.E. Lupton’s photographic studio in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, a well-regarded early 20th-century portrait studio known for its carefully lit “attestation” photographs—images taken shortly after a man enlisted.

Plate II – The Embossed Portrait

A formal postcard portrait shows the young Royal Engineers recruit wearing Pattern 1902 Service Dress, a stiff high-collared tunic, and a clearly visible GvR cap badge.
The photograph is mounted within Lupton’s distinctive embossed frame—an instant identifier to collectors.

Plate III – The Warm-Tone Companion Portrait

A second portrait from the same sitting reveals a slightly softer expression and a warm photographic tone typical of pre-deployment studio work. These images were often sent home to reassure families or kept as keepsakes before a soldier marched into the unknown.

Together, these portraits capture the quiet moment before upheaval—when a uniform still felt new and the magnitude of the months ahead was not yet fully understood.

🪖 Training at Haynes Park House, Bedfordshire

The third photograph moves us from the quiet formality of the studio to the cold, open training grounds of Haynes Park House in Bedfordshire, a major wartime Royal Engineers Signal Service training centre.

Plate I – The Haynes Park Group Photograph

A group of newly enlisted Signal Service trainees stand on frost-covered grass outside the south-east façade of Haynes Park House.

Details captured in the image include:

• R.E. shoulder titles

• White Signal Service lanyards

• Mounted cable section spurs

• Puttees and ammunition boots typical of early-war kit

These clues allowed us to date the image to winter 1915–1916, during one of the large recruitment waves that brought thousands of technically minded young men into the communications arm of the army.

The architectural features of the building match surviving photographs from the Haynes Park WWI Heritage Project, confirming the precise location.

📡 Why the Signal Service Mattered

The Royal Engineers Signal Service would eventually lay more than 30,000 miles of communication cable across the Western Front.
When lines were cut by shellfire—often dozens of times a day—linesmen repaired them under conditions so dangerous that their casualty rate rivalled that of infantry officers.

These three photographs may appear modest, but collectively they document:

• The early standardization of Signal Service training

• The transition from civilian to soldier

• The technical identity of a corps essential to wartime communications

• The rarely photographed world behind the front lines

This is the value of small, well-researched photographic sets: each one restores a fragment of the historical record.

📝 Research & Provenance

Timefound Archives has produced a full provenance report that includes:

• Analysis of uniform, insignia, and equipment

• Identification of A.E. Lupton’s studio marks

• Architectural comparison of the Haynes Park House façade

• Dating based on winter conditions and intake records

• Historical context of early Signal Service training

The result is a coherent, carefully interpreted sequence—rare for WWI collections, where images often survive individually and without context.

📦 Preservation & Presentation

All three photographs have been professionally mounted on acid-free archival board, paired with explanatory cards, and supplied with a multi-page provenance dossier.
This ensures they can be:

• Safely displayed

• Readily studied

• Preserved for future generations

This is core to Timefound Archives’ mission: not just acquiring historical artefacts, but rebuilding their stories so they can be understood and appreciated today.

⭐ A Window Into a Long-Forgotten Journey

This photographic set captures a powerful, quiet truth about the First World War:
Behind every trench map and battle report stood ordinary men learning extraordinary skills—fast, urgently, and often in the bitter cold of a Bedfordshire winter.

They might not appear in official histories.
They might never have spoken about their service.
But for a brief moment, their lives were captured on film.

And now, their story has a home again.