German colonial soldiers being brought into a British camp for parley, 1914

Photograph, World War One, West Africa (1914-1918), 1914.

Black soldiers bore the brunt of the fighting in both West and East Africa during World War One. The Germans, French, Belgians and British all relied on locally recruited soldiers and labourers to sustain their campaigns.

From a collection by Lieutenant Mark Culling Carr Gomm.