English: '2nd Mule Corps, Lahore Division', 5 November 1914

Lithograph by and after Paul Sarrut (1882-1969), 5 November 1914.

One of 70 lithographs of sketches by Paul Sarrut, No 81 in a limited edition of 250 entitled 'British and Indian Troops in Northern France', published by H Delepine, Arras, 1920 (c).

An officer of the 2nd Mule Corps, 3rd Lahore Division is shown seated, in the action of drawing his sword. Mules were used extensively on the Western Front to transport supplies. The Army's Remount Department spent £67.5 million (about £3 billion in today's money) purchasing, training and delivering horses and mules to the front.

Camille Georges Paul Sarrut was born in Grenoble in May 1882. He was an artist and engraver who studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1909, under the name Paul Sarrut. Having undertaken national service in 1903, he rejoined the French Army in 1914 as a corporal and served during the First World War (1914-1918). That same year he was posted to the British Army as a Military Liaison Officer and interpreter for the French, Indian and British troops on the Western Front. The National Army Museum holds a large collection of original sketches that Sarrut drew during the war, many of which he published in this set of lithographs in about 1920.