The First World War at Home: photographs from the Bedford Lemere & Co collection

Automobile Association (AA) Scouts, Westminster, Greater London, 1914

AA Scouts parade in front of the Association's offices prior to enlistment.

Five hundred AA staff volunteered for service at the outbreak of the First World War. Many men joined the 8th (Cyclist) Battalion of the Essex Regiment.

The AA office in Whitcombe Street was used as an address where applications for recruitment could be made.

Belgian refugees at General Buildings, Westminster, Greater London, 1914

General Buildings at Aldwych was built for the General Accident Fire & Life Assurance Company, which had strong links with the Belgian insurance industry.

During the First World War the company's head office became home to the War Refugees Committee and the Belgian Labour section of the Ministry of Labour's Employment Exchange.

In September 1914, The Times newspaper reported that between 300 and 400 Belgian refugees a day were passing through General Buildings.

Australian soldiers outside the Union Jack Club, Lambeth, Greater London, 1915

A number of Australian soldiers, civilians and a policeman have posed for Bedford Lemere & Co's photographer outside the Union Jack Club in Waterloo Road, Lambeth.

Founded in 1904, the Union Jack Club was a place where servicemen could meet, eat and stay the night while in London.

The splicing room at TT Nethercoat & Co, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex, 1915

TT Nethercoat & Co was a chandlers and sailmakers who applied their specialist skills to war work.

Here, workers, including old men and a boy, make rope handles for canvas ammunition buckets destined for the Chief Inspector of Equipment and Stores at the Royal Dockyard, Greenwich.

Some of the men wear jumpers featuring the names of local yachts.

Preparing aircraft propellers at Hampton & Sons Ltd, Lambeth, Greater London, 1916

Male and female staff work on four-blade aircraft propellers in a workshop at Hampton & Sons Ltd in Lambeth.

Like many manufacturers with skilled workforces, Hampton & Sons, a house furnishers, produced a variety of items for the war effort. As well as aircraft propellers, the Lambeth factory made canvas bags and webbing.

Doping aircraft wings at Waring & Gillow, Hammersmith, Greater London, 1916

Utilising the skills of its workforce, Waring & Gillow's furniture factory in Hammersmith was used to build aircraft.

Here, men, women and a boy are varnishing or 'doping' wings.

Workers at Waring & Gillow, White City, Greater London, 1916

During the First World War, furniture manufacturers Waring & Gillow turned their facility at White City into a war equipment factory.

Production included valises, respirator satchels, horse nosebags, machine-gun belts and tents.

Tent manufacturing at Waring & Gillow, White City, Greater London, 1916

Female sewing-machinists at Waring & Gillow’s White City factory use Singer sewing machines to make tents for the war effort.

A serving soldier wrote to Waring & Gillow: ‘It may please you to know that the tentage of the troops on this station bears the name of Waring and Gillow, the tents are all under my charge, and I have not had a single complaint through all the storms of sand, wind and rain.'

A workshop at the Belgian Munition Works, Richmond upon Thames, Greater London, 1918

In January 1915, labour exchanges were instructed to obtain lists of employable Belgian refugees.

One refugee, the engineer Charles Pelabon, established a munitions factory at Richmond, where a sizeable Belgian community soon developed.

WH Smith bookstall at Piccadilly Circus underground station, Westminster, Greater London, 1916

This bookstall displays newspaper placards mentioning the Somme, Vogue magazine and novels.

An advertisement for The Gentlewoman promotes an article on 'Gentlewomen as Munition Workers'.

Temporary buildings for the War Office, Victoria Embankment Gardens, Westminster, Greater London, 1917

The demands on the War Office during the First World War resulted in the occupation of premises and the construction of temporary offices in Victoria Embankment Gardens.

The Hotel Cecil, seen here in the background of this Bedford Lemere & Co photograph, was also taken over by the War Office.

The dining hall at the Eagle Hut, Westminster, Greater London, 1918

The United States declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917.

The Eagle Hut was was erected in September 1917 by the American YMCA on a vacant plot in Aldwych. It provided company and refreshment to US and other servicemen, attended by American ladies living in London.

A similar facility had been opened by the YMCA in Bloomsbury in 1916. Named the Shakespeare Hut, it was built on a site that before the war had been earmarked for a Shakespeare memorial theatre.

The Red Cross Prisoners of War Parcels Department, Westminster, Greater London, 1917

The Red Cross and the Order of St John of Jerusalem formed a committee to serve prisoners of war.

This photograph was taken for Mrs Rivers Bulkeley, who was invested as a Lady of Grace for the Order of St John following the death of her husband, who was killed in action in 1914.

The recreation room at the Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital, Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, 1915

Woburn Abbey was one of the many country houses pressed into service as a hospital during the First World War.

Here, soldiers relax in the hospital recreation room, which was formerly a real tennis court.

Patients and staff at St Andrew's Hospital, Dollis Hill, Greater London, 1916

Bedford Lemere & Co had photographed the newly-completed hospital in 1914. The firm returned in 1916 to photograph patients, nurses and nuns.

The hospital's treasurer and chaplain, Monsignor ME Carton de Wiart, was cousin of the war hero Adrian Carton de Wiart, who had recently been awarded the Victoria Cross.

The Muslim Burial Ground, Horsell Common, Woking, Surrey, 1917

Also known as the Mohammedian Cemetery, the burial ground was created to provide a place where Muslim soldiers killed in action during the First World War could be buried according to their religion.