Forts Gallery

World War I spy drawing

What appears to be an innocent landscape drawing is in fact a plan of a harbour and its forts. The sketch has been made in accordance with a secret pictorial code known to the government in whose interest they were spying. In this code a windmill for example, would represent a lighthouse; a plantation of trees, a fort; a single farmhouse or cottage, a group of buildings; a group of houses, a town; a church, Admiralty offices or a Town Hall and double lines (ostensibly roads), railway tracks. In the image below, the innocent landscape has been decoded by the enemy for whom the drawing was made Date: 1914

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Michel Robert, Le Peletier des Forts 1675-1740

Michel Robert, Le Peletier des Forts 1675-1740. Le Pelletier Desforts. Handcoloured lithograph after a painting of the coronation of Louis XV from Le Bibliophile Jacob aka Paul Lacroix's Costumes Historiques de la France (Historical Costumes of France), Administration de Librairie, Paris, 1852. Date:

© Florilegius/Mary Evans

Drawing of Chinese guard leading prisoner on chain

One of a set of 12 coloured drawings on paper found and carried off from one of the forts of Woosung by Captain (then Lieutenant) Henry Eden, R.N. on 18 June 1842. He considered them to be at least 20 years old at that time? Date: circa 1822

© Mary Evans Picture Library/Harry Price

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