A brass band plays at the New Zealand Rifle Brigade camp near Ypres, Belgium, on 19 September 1917. In the early years of the First World War bandsmen also acted as stretcher bearers. High stretcher-bearer casualties and the difficulty of replacing musicians meant that bandsmen were later withdrawn from the front line. Military authorities considered that the morale-boosting effect of music was the bandsmen's greatest contribution to the war effort.
Using this item
Alexander Turnbull Library, Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association Collection
Reference:
1/4-009493-G
Photograph by Henry Armytage Sanders
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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