Barrie Bertram, of the Channel Islands Great War Study Group, would be grateful for any information about the subjects of this photograph taken by A Laurens in Jersey around 1917

CHANNEL Islands Great War Study Group member Barrie Bertram was recently sent the accompanying photograph, taken by A Laurens in Jersey during the Great War, and asks if any Islander can identify the faces and the occasion.

The sender’s grandfather is in the photograph, second from the left in the back row, and was Private Claude Charles Morton who was born in East Dulwich, London.

His presence helps to identify the earliest date that it was taken, for although the uniformed men were all wearing Jersey Militia cap badges, Claude was one of a group of 100 British Army soldiers who were sent to augment the Royal Jersey Garrison Battalion at some stage after 1 September, 1917.

Earlier that year, Jersey’s Military Service Act had been passed introducing conscription, and the Militia had been suspended with so many men now being considered part of the British Army.

Yet Jersey still needed to be defended, and the RJGB was formed. Those soldiers who had come from the Army, had seen service in France and through injury or illness were no longer fit to return to front-line duty. Claude was one such, having been seriously wounded on the Somme in November 1916 while serving with the 12th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment.

Examination of the photograph offers little in the way of clues. A few of the men have good conduct stripes and there are marksman badges also. The sergeant with the dog may have qualified as a School of Musketry instructor.

The man second from the right in the back row is a drummer, while the bugler also has a coach horn. Where sleeve cuffs are visible, there are no wound stripes being worn.

Any information will be most welcome and Mr Bertram can be contacted via www.greatwarci.net or bhbertram@tiscali.co.uk.