This lantern was taken on a farm in the village of Saint-Eloi. Such lanterns would have been essential in enabling the excavation of these deep tunnels which facilitated the establishment and blowing of mines under the German Positions.
In World War I, like other parts of the Ypres Salient, the village of Saint Eloi was the site of the Battles of Ypres between German and Allied forces. From the spring of 1915, there was constant underground fighting in the Ypres Salient at Hooge, Hill 60, Railway Wood, Sanctuary Wood, The Bluff and St Eloi.
