I'm trying to establish the origins of a photo I came across which shows young men in army battledress uniform & berets practicing marching during some down time. They are all next to a wall mounted sign of Heddon on the Wall.
I asked him where he had found the photo as it looked like an old framed copy from someone's mantlepiece (possibly a relative).
His answer was completely unexpected.
In May 2008, Conservative leader and Old Etonian, David Cameron, named 'The Eton Rifles' as one of his favourite songs, something that sparked some controversy.
This will be the last time it will be on view in the UK.
A music blog in The Guardian from 2009, 'Bring the Jam's Setting Sons sculpture back on display' provides the following information.
The sculpture was photographed by Andrew Douglas, who had been a regular visitor to the IWM when he presented the Clemens image to the art department at Polydor, The Jam's record company, for a potential sleeve image.
If anyone knows anything about the photo of soldiers at Heddon on the Wall or how it ended up on the record sleeve and promotional fliers for The Jam's The Eton Rifles please get in touch. It may be a group of young army cadets resting during an exercise with their trainers, probably post-Second World War, and probably having no connection at all with Eton College.