Embroidered pictures fall into two distinct categories of design, and two distinct sources.

The designs are either regimental crests or the flags of the Allies. Having said this, it may well be that other designs were made, but in the absence of either of these elements they are indistinguishable from the domestic embroideries done by ladies from the eighteenth century onwards, and so do not get treated as trench art.

One of the main sources of embroideries are girlfriends and wives ‘back home’ producing something to decorate their home and remind them of their boy in France. The second is the wounded soldiers in hospitals back in England who would be taught embroidery as a kind of ‘occupational therapy’, getting minds and fingers active again and relieving boredom while wounds healed. George Coppard mentions this in his book. While recuperating in hospital in Birkenhead...

“One kind old lady brought a supply of coloured silks and canvas, and instructed us in the art of embroidery. A sampler which I produced under her guidance so pleased her that she had it framed for me.”