Colony and protectorate · 1896–1960
Warandsoldiers
The Hut Tax War, Freetown's harbour in the two world wars, the civil war of 1991–2002 and the soldiers and peacekeepers who came after.
Many were made by colonial officials, missionaries and foreign visitors. Titles and descriptions come from the collections that hold them and can carry the attitudes and language of their time. We show them as historical records, not as endorsements. Dates, eras and categories were assigned automatically from those records and some will be wrong. If you or your family appear in a picture, you hold rights to one, a detail is wrong, or you think a picture should not be here, press “Report this picture” under it: your note reaches our editors with the picture attached, and they can take it down straight away. You can also write to hello@dt-ets.com.
Bai Bureh 1898
The Temne leader of the 1898 Hut Tax War, photographed as a prisoner by Lieutenant Arthur Greer of the West India Regiment.
Lieutenant Arthur Greer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Troops embarking at Freetown for Douala 1914
Agence Rol · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Ground crew wheel a Hurricane onto the runway at Hastings airfield c. 1942
No. 128 Squadron RAF flew from Hastings between October 1941 and March 1943, guarding Freetown's harbour, a key Allied convoy port, against Vichy French aircraft.
Royal Air Force official photographer, Gale (Plt Off) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Military Parade Watched by Governor Leslie Probyn 1904–10
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
A Mandingo man in war dress covered in gris-gris, each holding a verse of the Koran, 1910 1910
Original title: A Mandingo in fetish war dress: a mass of gre-gre charms, each containing a quotation from the Koran in Arabic
T. J. Alldridge · Public domain · Internet Archive · Source ↗ · Report this picture
War fences: the stockades that once ringed most towns, 1910 1910
Original title: War fences: formerly most of the towns were surrounded by these fences or stockades
T. J. Alldridge · Public domain · Internet Archive · Source ↗ · Report this picture
FORBES(1910) 04 Freetown, Officers of the American Navy ashore published 1910
Forbes, Edgar Allen (& Photographer) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
British forces boarding at Freetown to attack the port of Douala (Cameroon): [press photograph] / [Agence Rol] 1914
Original title: Forces anglaises embarquant à Freetown pour attaquer le port de Douala (Cameroun) : [photographie de presse] / [Agence Rol]
Agence Rol. Agence photographique (commanditaire) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
BEATTY(1915) Fig21 Freetown, West African Soldiers published 1915
Beatty, Kenneth James, (Sir); Sierra Leone. · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
British Expeditionary Force in Freetown, 1919 1919
New York Times, Co. · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
War club, Kissi Collected by 1931
Original title: Klubba., klubba
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg · Source ↗ · Report this picture
A-Sierra-Leone-regiment-falling-in-for-parade-1939-142355129755 1939
Unknown photographer Unknown photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Nigerian Bandsmen Entertain British Sailors at African Port. 6 December 1942, Freetown, Sierra Leone. A13900 1939–45
Roper, F G (Lt) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1939-1945. CH10739 1939–45
No. 11 OTU, Royal Air Force official photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
A landing ship unloading American timber for the new docks at Freetown, Second World War 1939–45
Original title: The Royal Navy during the Second World War A17840
Intelligence, Freetown, Royal Navy official photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
A Sierra Leonean signalman of HMS Mercator signalling to a submarine by semaphore, Freetown, Second World War 1939–45
Original title: The Royal Navy during the Second World War A18849
Royal Navy official photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
German navy prisoners, blindfolded, on the dockside at Freetown, Second World War 1939–45
Original title: The Royal Navy during the Second World War A19396
Royal Navy official photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
A Valentine tank unloaded from HMS Bachaquero at Freetown, Second World War 1939–45
Original title: The Royal Navy during the Second World War A20036
Royal Navy official photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Defiant aircraft taking off from HMS Spurwing, the Royal Navy air station in Sierra Leone, Second World War 1939–45
Original title: The Royal Navy during the Second World War A22306
Royal Navy official photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
A Defiant aircraft from the Sierra Leone naval air station over a convoy leaving Freetown 1939–45
Original title: The Royal Navy during the Second World War A22308
Royal Navy official photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Motor minesweeper J 821 moored in Freetown harbour, Second World War 1939–45
Original title: The Royal Navy during the Second World War A22483
Royal Navy official photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
African naval ratings, led by their drum and fife band, leave their barracks for the Red Cross parade, Freetown 1939–45
Original title: The Royal Navy during the Second World War A24463
Royal Navy official photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
A navy lifeboat carried on a lorry in the Red Cross parade, Freetown 1939–45
Original title: The Royal Navy during the Second World War A24464
Royal Navy official photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
95 Squadron RAF Sunderland at Freetown WWII IWM CM 2564-83-23 between circa 1941 and circa 1943
Royal Air Force official photographer, Gale (Plt Off) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
95 Squadron RAF Sunderland at Freetown WWII IWM CM 2564-83-36 between circa 1941 and circa 1943
Royal Air Force official photographer, Gale (Plt Off) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Gross began an eight-week voyage on board 'Highland Monarch' in late November 1941. The ship sailed from Avonmoth to-Suez via Sierra Leone, 1941 (Second World War)
Anthony Gross · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Squadron Leader Billy Drake in his Hurricane at Hastings airfield, 1942 1941–45
Original title: Royal Air Force- West Africa Command, 1941-1945. CM2531
Gale (Plt Off), Royal Air Force official photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Royal Air Force- West Africa Command, 1941-1945. CM4861 1941–45
Royal Air Force official photographer, Woodbine G (Fg Off) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
A Fulmar aircraft about to take off from HMS Spurwing on coastal patrol, Sierra Leone, Second World War 1941–43
Original title: The Royal Navy during the Second World War A22312
Royal Navy official photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
African naval ratings march past Governor Sir Hubert Stevenson at the Law Courts, Freetown between 5 July 1941 and 1945
Original title: The Royal Navy during the Second World War A24465
Royal Navy official photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Africa during World War II (3325909399) 1942
John Atherton · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
World War II in Africa (3370990130) 1942
John Atherton · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
A French sailor carrying fresh pineapples on board the submarine depot ship HMS MERCATOR at Freetown, Sierra Leone, August 1943. A18857 1943
Royal Navy official photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Pilot Officer J H Smythe of Sierra Leone, a newly-qualified navigator, being instructed in the use of the sextant by an instructor at No. 11 1 August 1943
No. 11 OTU, Royal Air Force official photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
The work of the Merchant Navy during the Second World War, 1943 D16069 1943
Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
The officers of HMS Spurwing, the Royal Navy air station in Sierra Leone, March 1944 March 1944
Original title: A Naval Air Station in West African Bush. March 1944, at HMS Spurwing, Royal Naval Air Station in Sierra Leone, Once a Stretch of Untouchabl
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Bo Sierra Leone c 1944 (3134619932) 2008
Sludge G · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Law student D. A. Thomas and student teacher Rosamund Harding, Colonial Centre, London, 1944 1944
Bryson Jack, Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Sierra Leoneans at dinner in the Colonial Centre, London, 1944 Taken in 1944
P. Thorpe, Freetown's chief fire officer, leans over to Rosamund Harding, a student teacher, at a table with the law students D. A. Thomas and C. O. E. Cole. (The holder spells his name "Thorpee".)
Bryson Jack, Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Latex collected from Rubber Tree. Sierra Leone 1944 (3133798629) 1944
Sludge G , 2008-12-25 02:14 · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
"Railway Station in the Protectorate", Sierra Leone, c 1944 (3133798403)
Sludge G · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Sierra Leone c. 1944 (3133799053) 2008
Sludge G · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Miss A. Caulker, headmistress, at the London School of Economics, 1946 1946
Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Sword In the museum by 1900
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Frances Wright, barrister, at the Inns of Court, London, c. 1941 Photographed 1930–31
Frances Claudia Wright (1919–2010) of Freetown, the first Sierra Leonean woman called to the English Bar (Gray's Inn, 1941) and the first woman to practise law in Sierra Leone. Her father and grandfather were Freetown lawyers. Sailing home in 1943 she lost her wig and gown when her ship was attacked; she joined her father's practice, became a magistrate and later President of the Bar Association. The museum's caption gives no name. If you knew her, tell us.
Bolinder, Gustaf Wilhelm · Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Throwing spear with a leather grip, Vai Collected 1930–31
Original title: Javelin, spear
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Iron throwing spear with a twisted shaft, Vai Collected 1930–31
Original title: Javelin, spear
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Iron throwing dart, Vai Collected 1930–31
Original title: Arrow
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Throwing dart Collected 1930–31
Original title: Kastpil, pil, arrow
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Throwing dart with a wooden shaft, Vai Collected 1930–31
Original title: Arrow
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Small iron throwing dart, Vai Collected 1930–31
Original title: Arrow
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Hammer Collected 1930–31
Original title: Hammare, hammer
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Bass, toy, gun Collected 1930–31
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Swords In the museum by 1900
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Curved sword in a leather scabbard In the museum by 1942
Original title: Swords
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Freetown-View of the Barracks c. 1900
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
This picture shows a Poro or Sande (Bondo) society ceremony, dancer or object. Some of what the societies do is for members only; it is shown here for its history
Head-dress used in Burdu Secret Society, Sierra Leone Probably before 1936
CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
The Second Great War Vol. 7 - Coats of Arms of Forty Crown Colonies, Protectorates and Mandated Territories (2) 1940s
John Alexander Hammerton · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture