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Remembered Today:

GWF Centenary Christmas Cards 1914


Anneca

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If a variety pack of WW1 cards was produced they could be used for the full four year centenary period. I have attached a few scanned Cards from my collection as an example but may be if others join in an provide other examples, we could build an interesting selection.

Sepoy

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I know I have some cards sent to Blighty to celebrate Christmas by a couple of relatives at the front. None, however, were of the 1914 variety which must have been invented for 1915 at the earliest...along with cards showing the Angel of Mons. I am old enough to remember the survivors of WW1 as young-ish men, and they didn't give a damn about anything to do with Christmas in the trenches or anywhere else during those years. HELL is what they saw and remembered and sod-all else. 1914 was just the start, and those involved in the 1914 truce can be excused for living in hope. The real horror came later, and lasted until such as the German officer kept his men firing their machine gun until exactly 11 am, then bowed to the trenches opposite and turned his back to march away. Why pretend anything else?

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Multiple images are more expensive to produce. You need one tasteful and evocative card.

Hazel

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Apologies not getting back to this thread until now.

It would appear that the response to my suggestion of a 1914 Christmas card has been quite favourable so where do we go from here? To date we have the following positive suggestions:

  1. Free images
  2. Reproducing some of the original Christmas cards which have been posted on the Forum in the past.
  3. A mixed pack of cards with different images, perhaps of battlefields in winter months, with a further suggestion of use for the full four year centenary period.
  4. My original suggestion of the image of A.C. Michael’s Christmas Truce 1914

If any of the first three suggestions have the backing of members we would need to know how can they be produced? Sepoy has already kindly offered scans of his original cards, but is anyone prepared to take on the responsibility of costing/printing/distributing these?

Whatever is decided from the four options, some members have suggested getting an idea of the number of members willing to purchase the cards so we would know how many to order. My opinion is that we would need to do this and at the same time ascertain how many they wish to buy before placing an order. Biff has suggested members send cash in advance to help pay for the printing costs – another good idea and one that would need to be agreed if we were not to drain the financial resources of the Forum. (Advice from a Forum Admin. Person dealing with finance would be appreciated here.)

Then there is the consideration of “what is a fair price”? At this point, in the absence of costs in respect of suggestions 1, 2 and 3 above, I can only go on the quotations for the Christmas Truce 1914 card - one of which was 5,000 cards (500 packs of 10) and envelopes £1.43 per pack. I must point out that 5,000 cards was a number picked out of my head as a starting point and have no doubt a quotation can be obtained for a lesser amount, the higher amounts have already been stated. A “nice round fiver” has been suggested, and I think also £4 and £6. I really think different prices would complicate things so we would need to agree what we are happy to pay for a pack of 10 cards (considering the initial wholesale/charity price of the quote in this instance is £1.43) to give the Forum sufficient funds.

The postage element could be tricky as there will be different rates depending on how many packs each member would wish to buy and also different rates to various countries. Would we want to decide on a flat rate per 1, 2, 3 packs or more etc. regardless of whatever country to which they are being sent or calculate the weight packs per country? Would it be viable to include postage in the price of the cards when this is agreed or would postage be extra?

Again, I can only speak about the quotation I have already obtained which is free postage to the first delivery address for the order, and subsequent deliveries extra. I had forgotten to mention the lead time from placing this order to delivery is approx. 7 weeks. At this stage I am willing to have my address as the delivery address if we wish to go with the quotation I have already obtained. I know this is a lot to take on but would consider, without any commitment at this stage, being in the firing line and opening a “Field Post Office” at home, forwarding the orders on to members, although the feasibility of this would need to be looked at in detail.

I should add that a Forum Christmas Card for all four years of the Centenary period, in whatever form, could further add to the coffers of the Forum. However, if we initially agree with the idea of a card for 1914, the total amount ordered and funds raised would reflect the amount of interest there is in this, giving us an indication of the revenue to the Forum over the further three years of the Centenary.

I welcome your thoughts, ideas, contributions, advice, criticism etc. and look forward to more ideas.

Regards,

Anne

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I know I have some cards sent to Blighty to celebrate Christmas by a couple of relatives at the front. None, however, were of the 1914 variety which must have been invented for 1915 at the earliest...

This is most likely one of the earliest Christmas Cards to be sent home in 1914. It is obviously a Field Post Card with strict instructions “Nothing is to be written on this side except the date and signature of the sender. If anything else is added the post card will be destroyed."

Although nothing could be written on Field Post Cards, soldiers were allowed to add a personal message to cards sent home that Christmas in 1914. The soldier wrote the card on 23rd December and, knowing his family would not receive it in time for Christmas said “Wishing you a happy New Year”. As you can see the Field Post Office stamp is dated 23rd December and the Army Post Office stamp 25th December.

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So, although not a Christmas Card as we know it today, surely this must count as a card from Christmas 1914.

Anne

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What an excellent idea. Put me down for three dozen.

Guy

Guy, although this idea is still very much in it's infancy and needs the support of the Forum, I reckon a round number such as a pack of 10 would be much simpler than a dozen. So, if it takes off, you would like 3 packs and hopefully 6 cards thrown in for good luck? (What a cracking guy/bloke you are!)

Anne

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As soon as it's off the ground I will be very happy to put my order in. Three packs or four they will be worth it and a good cores. Made my own several years ago using a black and white 13th Div card designed by Bruce Bainfather. Put a holly wreath in colour around it. Made sure I acknowledged the original. Went down quite well. I have other cards but have never got round to doing it again.

Guy

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Just bringing this thread to the fore again to see if there is interest from members who may not have seen it earlier. This will give us an idea of the response to raising funds for the Forum and at the same time having our Christmas cards sorted for 2014.

Regards, Anne

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Count me in. I always try and buy WW1 related cards to send at Christmas. I ordered some from the WFA for 2013 - still waiting to receive them!! I would love to support the forum though

Tanks 3

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Brilliant Tanks 3, all we need to do now is to wait for the approval of the Moderators and see how we can get this going.

Thank you, Anne

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Great idea, and count me in.

W.J.Caughey

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Thank you for the link Roop. I had a quick look at the site and they seem to be more expensive than the quote we already have. Their quote per card is £2.40, and per 2,000 cards £1.03p each with envelopes.

The quotes we have from the Card Company for Wholesale/Charity cards with envelopes is: 500 packs of 10 cards £1.43 per pack of 10 = 14.3p per card, or 1,000 packs of 10 cards £1.39 per pack = 13.9p per card.

Regards, Anne

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A very good idea.

May I suggest the images used should have a light hearted touch. People will probably want to send the cards to friends/relatives who are not so keen on the subject of the Great War as we are. For example, of Sepoy's images in post 26, I would send the RND card for 1916 and the one above it to a wider range of people than I would the Machine Gunner image for 1918.

Having a card for each of the 5 Christmases of the centenary is also a good idea - although a price of around £4 would be my suggestion.

Neil

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There must be some good watercolour images of the war around.

Hazel

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How on earth did I miss this first time round? What a brilliant idea! I'm sure the Thompson household would be only too pleased to support this venture.

As ever, if there's anything I can do to help ........

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A very good idea.

May I suggest the images used should have a light hearted touch. People will probably want to send the cards to friends/relatives who are not so keen on the subject of the Great War as we are. For example, of Sepoy's images in post 26, I would send the RND card for 1916 and the one above it to a wider range of people than I would the Machine Gunner image for 1918.

Having a card for each of the 5 Christmases of the centenary is also a good idea - although a price of around £4 would be my suggestion.

Neil

Thank you Neil. I agree that people will probably not want to send the cards to people/relatives who are not as keen on the Great War as we are. However it is the Centenary and with so many events scheduled, media interest, publications etc. locally, nationally and internationally, I think this might generate more interest in people who have had no interest in the past. Thank you for your suggestion of £4 - to date I think we have had suggestions of £4, £5 and £6 although I think £6 a bit too much to ask. I expect the decision will be made by your team in due course.

Anne

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There must be some good watercolour images of the war around.

Hazel

Might have to pay a royalty for their use though depending on who owns the copyright.

Count me in for a few packs.

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How on earth did I miss this first time round? What a brilliant idea! I'm sure the Thompson household would be only too pleased to support this venture.

As ever, if there's anything I can do to help ........

Thank you so much for your kind offer of help Kim. I'm afraid I haven't looked further into the logistics of this until members finally agree on what type of image they wish to have, and can only assume the Admin. Team will make this decision after taking into account the input from members. If they decide on the Christmas 1914 image in my first post, we already have quotations for print and supply and I am happy to organise this and look at methods of distribution. If they decide on different images (copyright would need to be considered here), some extremely good suggestions have already been put forward although suppliers and quotations will need to be sourced. If someone is happy to take on the task of looking at copyright and sourcing suppliers/quotations for producing the cards from various images, I am willing, like yourself, to offer my help to them.

Regards,

Anne

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Might have to pay a royalty for their use though depending on who owns the copyright.

Count me in for a few packs.

Thanks Squirrel, every little helps.

Anne

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  • 2 weeks later...

First of all, many thanks to Anne for proposing this excellent idea, and carrying it forward.

An order for 500 packs (10 per pack) has been placed, and we expect delivery of the first-ever GWF Christmas cards in mid-March, in time for the conference.

As you may imagine, the initial expense makes serious inroads into our finances, and we are anxious to recoup this as quickly as possible, and also to minimimise the work and expense of distribution. To do this we wish to use the Conference to launch the cards, and as a hub for distribution; so, the first tranche of sales will be via the Conference, at £4 per pack..

We wish to encourage delegates to the conference not simply to buy some for themselves, but to take orders for members who are not attending. For instance, I am happy to take orders for fellow members of Northamptonshire WFA, and anyone in central Northampton. I'm sure many members are able to offer similar arrangements, and we would appreciate attendees registering their willingness to help in this way by placing their details on the dedicated thread (Card orders via conference) where they may be contacted by pm. From there we should be able to compile a list of orders for collection on the day.

If you are not attending the Conference, and cannot obtain cards from attendees DON'T PANIC!!

Once we have the cards we will be able to explore postage costs, and will announce these and ordering details on another dedicated thread.

A proof-copy will be available soon (a rough date for this has been requested from company) so everyone will be able to view the complete end-product prior to purchase.

Once again we would like to express our thanks to Anne for bringing this idea to fruition.

Please shop early for Christmas for the good of the Forum!

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  • 1 month later...

Very reasonable price - Even cheaper than Mr Hart's books :) - I will have a few packs

Andy

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