Various studies exist showing he continued to draw while in the army and a fellow soldier, years later in a letter to the artist’s widow, described mural decorations he painted for Christmas 1918 on the wall of a warehouse being used as a mess-hall in the deserted village of Auberchicourt, near Douai, using dry colours found in a builder’s yard mixed with ‘the glutinous substance you get from oatmeal porridge’.
His surname was alternatively spelt D'Abridgecourt, Dabridgcourt, Dabrichecourt or Aubréciourt and derived from the Hainault town of Auberchicourt.