Sentries at prisoners' tent, 1915 (pastel & gouache on grey laid paper mounted on buff...

A soldier on guard, equipped with rifle, outside a tent housing prisoners. Rae has shown the typical bell tents used by the British Army. The front tent, brilliantly lit with a red warm glow and with a pile of guns would have been the guards' tent. The gas stoves used to boil the billies and the glowing hurricane lamps were a privilege exclusive to the guards. The surrounding prisoners' tents are in darkness after an early lights out. The sentries in the front tent are British. While it is likely the prisoners in the rear tents are German, they could be British prisoners undergoing sentences of field punishment, principally for infractions of discipline committeed in or around Etaples. At most, there would have been no more than a few dozen men confined in this way. Artist's inscription indicates that the work was executed in the Spring of 1915.