Eccentric Club Entertain Wounded Soldiers

Soldiers stage a mock brawl and watch performances during festivities for 600 wounded soldiers held on an island in the Thames near Hampton Court.

Some 600 wounded soldiers, as well as civilians and Boy Scouts, are drawn to Tagg’s Island, a small Thames island near Hampton Court, for an afternoon of entertainment Fred Karno’s Karsino. Karno was an impresario and comic who built a music hall on Tagg’s Island in 1912. During the war, it became popular with soldiers, hundreds of whom can be seen here watching performances, picnicking on the lawn and, despite their crutches, staging a mock brawl.