THERE'S PLENTY OF WORK FOR YOU BOYS - An original 17 April 1940 Second World War press photograph of then-First Lord of the Admiralty Winston S. Churchill posing with members of the Australian Air Force just three weeks before Churchill became wartime Prime Minister

London: Copyright, The Associated Press of Great Britain, Ltd., Published by Evening Standard, 17 April 1940. Photograph. This original Second World War press photograph shows then-First Lord of the Admiralty Winston S. Churchill greeting Australian Air Force members on 17 April 1940, three weeks before Churchill became wartime Prime Minister. The gelatin silver heavy photo paper measures 7.5 x 9.5 in (19.05 x 24.13 cm). Condition is very good minus. The paper is clean and the image crisp and unfaded, despite minor blemishes and scratches visible under raking light. The blank, white margins contain most of the wear, with two short closed tears to the left margin and a small bit of the margin missing at the lower left corner.

This photo once belonged to the working archive of the Evening Standard and is profusely captioned and stamped. A large, original typed caption affixed to the verso is titled “’THERE’S PLENTY OF WORK FOR YOU BOYS’ SAYS MR. CHURCHILL TO AUSTRALIAN AIRMEN IN LONDON”. The extensive caption reads: “The 22 members of the Australian Air Force who arrived in England last night, April 16, were up early this morning seeing the sights of London. Outside 10, Downing Street they were lucky enough to see Mr. Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, going in to a meeting. On finding out who the Air Force men were Mr. Churchill greeted them warmly adding “There’s plenty of work for you boys to do over here”.

An additional printed caption, almost certainly from a newspaper clipping of the original publication of this image, is also affixed to the verso and reads “Some of the party of Australian Air Force men walking in Whitehall to-day met Mr. Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty. “There’s plenty of work for you boys to do,” he said, when they told him who they were – and then posed with them for this picture.

The verso features three ink stamps. One is dated “17 APR 1940”. Another is the same date within an oval “EVENING STANDARD” stamp. The third, partially obscured by the original typed caption, is the copyright stamp of “The Associated Press of Great Britain, Ltd.”

That Churchill was photographed with Australian airmen at this time is particularly poignant. This was Churchill’s second stint as First Lord of the Admiralty. A quarter of a century earlier, during the First World War, Churchill had also been First Lord when he was scapegoated for failure in the Dardanelles and slaughter at Gallipoli – a toll which fell particularly heavily on Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) troops. As a result, Churchill had been forced from his Cabinet position. A very different outcome was impending when this image was captured; Churchill became wartime Prime Minister on 10 May 1940.

This press photo once belonged to a newspaper’s working archive. During the first half of the twentieth century, photojournalism grew as a practice, fundamentally changing the way the public interacted with current events. Newspapers assembled expansive archives, including physical copies of all photographs published or deemed useful for potential future use, their versos typically marked with ink stamps and notes providing provenance and captions. Today these photographs exist as repositories of historical memory, technological artifacts, and often striking pieces of vernacular art.