This week’s photograph dates from the Second World War and depicts a rather portly soldier waiting at a table at an outside camp with a queue behind:

The central figure wears battledress and from the insignia on his shoulders appears to be a major. There is a divisional patch on his sleeve which appears to be a simple felt diamond:

The wearing of the FS caps suggests that this is from the earlier part of the war. The most interesting part of the image however is the table and clerk in front of him:

Quite what is going on here is unclear, but there is a lance corporal clerk sat behind a desk with a metal megaphone on it. The notice advises men to ‘check their ticket’ and there are some boxes and a couple of what may be rocks or potatoes! My feeling is that the photograph shows the issue of something, either kit or pay or a document in the field, however what and in what context is impossible to say. It is an intriguing image, but like so many of these photographs, if the owner did not write on the back, there is no way now of understanding what is taking place…answers on a postcard please!