There goes a saying that “there is nothing more scary than an officer with a map”.

British Army officers in the First World War were provided with trench maps to help them orientate and get used to the ground they were holding.

From early 1915 the Geographical Section of the General Staff began to produce trench maps. Together with a team of Royal Engineer observers who would reconnoitre ground with support from surveyors from the Ordnance Survey in Southampton, the process of creating up-to-date maps for the Army was underway.

Below is a picture of one of my favourite possessions, my Great-Grandfather’s original trench maps.

He was part of an attack on High Wood on the Somme when as he advanced he was hit by machine gun fire in the thigh. The bullet smashed through his trench maps as you can see from the photograph and the stain on the bottom right of the map is his blood.

The agony continued for my Great-Grandfather as he was bayonetted shortly after being shot, but thankfully he survived this ordeal and the war and got back home to London.

His maps somehow were saved from the great burning of his Army possessions by his wife, who was adamant she didn’t want them in the house. I imagine that the memories of nearly losing her husband in the war were evoked by his uniform and other apparatus and so they had to go. I’m glad I still have his trench maps.