Two first world war 'soldiers' re-enact the Battle of the Somme. Photograph: English Heritage
First the public was not allowed to see Tom smoking. Now, a similar fate has hit the Tommy.
After yesterday's reports that broadcasters are cutting scenes from Tom and Jerry cartoons for crimes against clean air, we can reveal that English Heritage has been similarly censorious in releasing images of first world war soldiers, the famous Tommies in the trenches, having a cigarette.
English Heritage is staging a re-enactment of part of the Battle of the Somme in Old Sarum this week and commissioned a series of photographs for promotional purposes. Unfortunately for members of the Great War Society, who take a pride in recreating the soldiers' kit, discipline and habits beyond the call of duty, pictures of the soldiers enjoying a quiet smoke between shelling have been vetoed from release.
While the cigarettes - even the filterless ones which one "soldier" scrupulously smokes as period detail when in uniform - have been airbrushed out of history, images of machine guns and rifles with bayonets have been released for public consumption. As has, indeed, a picture (above) of a soldier with a plastic digital watch, a defunct historical item normally worn by those re-enacting the Falklands War.
