with the Solomon camouflage scheme During
World War I, Solomon was a pioneer of
camouflage techniques. Having originally signed-up at the start of the war as a
private in The
Artists Rifles, a
Territorial Force regiment, he promoted his ideas on camouflage, initially in the press and then directly to senior army officers. In December 1915, General
Herbert Plumer arranged for Solomon to visit the front lines and investigate techniques in use by the French. His ideas were accepted, and he was asked to set up a team to start the production of camouflage materials in France. On 31 December 1915, General
Douglas Haig, Commander-in-chief of the British forces in France, instructed that Solomon be given the temporary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel to enable him to carry out his new duties. The new unit's first task was the design of armoured observation posts disguised as trees, following the pioneering work of the French Section de Camouflage led by
Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola. The first British tree observation post was put up on 22 March 1916. Solomon was effective at the artistic and technical tasks of designing trees and nets, but not as a commander. He was replaced in March 1916, instead becoming a technical advisor, a role that suited him better. In May 1916, he was sent to England to help develop
tank camouflage. Solomon doubted that tanks could be effectively camouflaged since they cast a large shadow. Instead, he argued for the use of camouflage netting, with which he gradually became obsessed, claiming that the Germans were hiding huge armies under immense nets. Camouflage netting was at first considered unimportant by the army; it was not manufactured in large quantities until 1917. Eventually, in 1920, he published a book,
Strategic Camouflage, arguing this case, to critical derision in England but with some support from German newspapers. In December 1916, Solomon established a camouflage school in
Hyde Park which was eventually taken over by the army. ==Family life==