A WELLINGTON resident has shared hundreds of photographs depicting wars that he says aren’t dissimilar to those today, and he asks: “are we ever going to learn?”

Colin Green found photos of his father’s time in the World War I territorial army and Royal Army Medical Corps (R.A.M.C.) hidden in the attic after his death in 1963. He has since made efforts to share them widely, hosting exhibitions in his hometown of Castle Bromwich in the 1980s.

Arthur Green (far left) with the army in 1913. Photo titled "Army Manoeuvres 1913" sent to his sister Beatrice
Arthur Green (far left) with the army in 1913. Photo titled "Army Manoeuvres 1913" sent to his sister Beatrice (Colin Green)
Captioned "Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives"
Captioned "Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives" - taken in 1918 (Colin Green)

Now, living in Wellington, Colin is keen to bring the horrors of the war back to light as war continues to rage on just as it once did, documented by his dad, Arthur Green, over 100 years ago.

Colin said: “He was very quiet about it, what he’d gone through.

“But the things he had to do, pick up the pieces... we thought it was funny picking up the pieces, but they were legs and arms and heads.

“He hid a lot, and we didn’t realise. I found his old photos in the roof at home in a case and I couldn’t believe it.”

Caption reads: "The morning after the bombardment. Gathering the bodies"
Caption reads: "The morning after the bombardment. Gathering the bodies" (Colin Green)
Captioned: "The street of arches, Jerusalem"
Captioned: "The street of arches, Jerusalem" (Colin Green)

Arthur Green was born in 1893 in West Bromwich and is understood to have been in his early teens when he joined the army with whom he later took part in the First World War as part of the R.A.M.C.

Green was stationed in the Arabian Peninsula, supporting the battle against the Ottoman Turks in Palestine, in places such as Gaza, Khan Yunis, Beersheba, Jaffa, Jerusalem, El Fayoum, and Deir al Balah, all names regularly mentioned in today’s news.

During his time, he meticulously recorded his travels, either through photographs or in letters that he sent to his sister Beatrice. Many of his photographs, taken with a box camera, have names and dates inscribed on them, documenting the realities of the war in Palestine with titles such as “Gaza after the bombardments.”

Captioned: "In Gaza after the bombardments"
Captioned: "In Gaza after the bombardments" (Colin Green)
Captioned: "Dier el Belah on the way to Gaza" (referring to Deir al Balah)
Captioned: "Dier el Belah on the way to Gaza" (referring to Deir al Balah) (Colin Green)
A photo of Palestinian men in Khan Younis
A photo of Palestinian men in Khan Younis (Colin Green)

His son, Colin, wasn’t born until Arthur was in his late 40s, just as the Second World War was beginning. Now 85 himself, Colin has seen a long lifetime’s worth of fighting and war, and says he wonders how many more people will have to suffer before we learn.

He said: “What's annoying me mostly is what's happening in the Middle East currently. It's always been like that, but people seem to forget that that’s the case.

“I'm getting into trouble with my brother. It's gone, just forget it, it's gone, he says, but I can't.

“I dream about it, about the fighting and the killing. It's got into me, you see.

“My brother has told me to chuck the photos away, but I said I wouldn’t. They help, you know. I haven’t been to these places, but I can actually feel what he describes when I read what he has written on the back of the photos.

“A lot of things have happened, and are happening, and I think that it comforts me knowing that he was once there too.”