'27th Punjabis - fait à Wasnes', 24 November 1915

Lithograph by and after Paul Sarrut (1882-1969), 24 November 1915. One of 70 lithographs of sketches by Paul Sarrut, No 81 in a limited edition of 250 entitled 'British and Indian Troops in Northern France', published by H Delepine, Arras, 1920 (c).

The 27th Punjabis had arrived in France in early September 1915 and joined the 9th (Sirhind) Brigade, 3rd (Lahore) Division, on the Western Front. Here, NCOs and men of the 27th Punjabis are huddled round a stove in a billet in the village of Wasnes-au-bac, between Valenciennes and Cambrai. Valenciennes remained in German hands from the early days of the First World War until November 1918. The original study for this print is also in the Collection of the National Army Museum.

Camille Georges Paul Sarrut was born in Grenoble in May 1882. He was an artist and engraver who studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1909, under the name Paul Sarrut. Having undertaken national service in 1903, he rejoined the French Army in 1914 as a corporal and served during the First World War (1914-1918). That same year he was posted to the British Army as a Military Liaison Officer and interpreter for the French, Indian and British troops on the Western Front. The National Army Museum holds a large collection of original sketches that Sarrut drew during the war, many of which he published in this set of lithographs in about 1920.