I would like to find additional group photos of the 8th Rifle Brigade in WW2, like the one attached and like the ones on my website page Group photos - 8th Rifle Brigade . They were made by Gale & Polden, in Aldershot, in front of Beaumont Barracks, in May 1944. I am hoping the whole battalion was photographed at the time, and I should be able to also find photos from HQ, F and E Companies, and from 5 to 8 and 14 to 21 Platoons. I have done a lot of asking around, but found non of these so far. So, now I am wondering, are the "Gale & Polden archives" preserved and kept somewhere? If so, I could check if these include the photos I am looking for. I also think they could provide much more material, that might also be of interest to others. Who knows anything about this?!
I recall that a history of Gale & Polden was recently published. It won't answer your question about the photograph, but it might reveal whether there's an extant archive: Historian traces history of Gale & Polden publishers.
Thanks. the article does indeed give the answer to my question, but not the one I had hoped for: no archive was kept...
I've got to choose words carefully without raising false hopes, so please bear with me: 'no official Archive of its own' does not equate to 'no Archive at all'.....indeed the words 'of its own' imply that there was or is an Archive elsewhere meaning, for example, that 'documents might have been donated to, for example, a Museum' with natural candidates being the IWM? Just thinking out loud with a 'glass half full' approach because I know that there are examples out there (for example, if you want any photos of Leyland Motors building tanks, then the Leyland Commercial Vehicles Museum in Leyland Lancashire have a number in their Archive. Not perfect but at least a start).
It might be worth checking the county archive in case any scavengers have deposited their finds there. What little remains of Baker-Perkins is in the Peterborough city archive. There's also the very nice tanky stuff from Vickers that VintageWargaming found at Beamish, as another example.
I'd have thought mailing David Strong would be a useful step...He seems to have become the Gale & Polden archivist. The Aldershot Museum as well as having a useful collection may well be the most likely place for things to have ended up.
Vickers' tank stuff at Beamish? Oh. Woah. Also local museums are worth investigating in general but can be messy to deal with etc. G&P infamously exploded leaving copyright in a lolwtfbbq state.
Cracked it for the archive of G&P. Go to the British Library site: www.bl.uk/catalogues-and-collections. In the search box put in 'Gale & Polden' and click the Main Catalogue button. There are 1702 entries for G&P but perhaps not all are G&P. Good searching! Best wishes.