An appealing album of vibrant watercolours and pencil drawings executed by a British solider in Egypt during the First World War, including Cairo street scenes, Egyptian children, a view of Damietta, pyramids, the Sphinx, a mosque, and a military encampment at “Kakon” (Qaqun?).
The majority of the album dates to c.1918 (with two images bearing this date), the period during which their creator, Sgt. Claude R. Wellum of the Royal Army Medical Corps, was stationed in Egypt. However, some of the pencil sketches appear to be from slightly later in Wellum’s military career, including a copy Augustus John’s portrait of Lawrence of Arabia (dated 1936), a portrait of George VI on a piece of notepaper from Guy’s Hospital, London, and two others depicting nurses tending to patients.