An artist's war: the art and letters of Morris and Alice Meredith Williams
(Adult Book)

When the First World War broke out, Morris Meredith Williams was living in Edinburgh with his wife Alice, a sculptor and earning his living from book illustration and teaching. A short man, his attempt to join the army in 1914 failed but 6 months later he was accepted by the 17th Battalion, the Welsh Regiment. From June 1916, he spent 10 months in and out of the trenches of the Western front. In 1917 he was with heavy artillery, mapping enemy positions from aerial reconnaissance shots and in 1918 he joined the Royal Engineers' camouflage unit at Wimereux. After, he was among a handful of artists kept back to make paintings for the official record and toured the shattered landscape in an old ambulance car. Never without a sketchbook and pencils in his pocket, he drew at every opportunity, producing an extraordinary record of his surroundings.