Pictures tell stories of soldiers’ war time experiences in Bath

Soldiers from The 12th Hampshire Regiment were billeted in Bathwick for about two months from March to May 1915, after which they moved on to Wiltshire for further training. While in Bath, they stayed in various large private homes in Bathwick Hill and the surrounding area. During this time, local Bath studio photographer George Love Dafnis took numerous photographs of the men which are now in the Bath In Time online collection https:// www.bathintime.co.uk/ The photographs give a good insight into what the men got up to while they were in Bath. A group sit on a bench half-way up Bathwick Hill; they pose on the steps of the Pavilion; and the mess cooks have an impromptu barbecue under the railway arches. Other pictures are portraits of individual men, or small groups; these would have been printed as a postcard for sending home. Soldiers passed through Bath on the way to and from training camps throughout the war; they must have added energy to Bath’s nightlife at the time. The Electric Theatre in Westgate Street put on a special concert and cinematograph show for the troops at Christmas 1914.