On Friday evening 1 July we witnessed a unique screening of photos of WW1 soldiers on the frontage of St Helier hospital to commemorate the opening of the battle of the Somme.

Many stood in silence opposite the hospital and watched the images – which came from Sutton’s Heritage Collection of glass plates taken by photographer David Knights-Whittome; ‘Photographer to the King’ – rise out of a field of poppies.

Mr Knights-Whittome had a photographic business in Sutton High St in Edwardian times.  The glass negative plates found there are currently being conserved, digitised and catalogued by Sutton Library thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The projection of images onto the St Helier frontage was made possible with the co-operation of the hospital and with a grant from the local WW1 Commemorative Steering Group, which is planning a series of events over this four year period.  See this web page.