headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 A nice simple card from 6/Div. I like the typography. Yes, I am a bit of a nerd. Obverse: I tried to add the interior of the card, but the system won't allow me. I'll try again later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepoy Posted 24 December , 2014 Share Posted 24 December , 2014 One more pushg into No forgiveness required - that is a fantastic piece of ephemera! Do you happen to know who it's from? Headgardener I really wish that I could add more detail to this Christmas greeting (I cannot call it a card as it is simply folded paper). I have often wondered who Lawrie was! By the way, you have an excellent selection of cards. Sepoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Back to the home front. Not strictly a Xmas card, but ephemera relating to a scheme for sending plum pudding to the troops. Obverse: ....and..... .... the reverse: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Trying to load an image of the interior of the 6/Div card but can't seem to do it... Work beckons. There's more. So much more..... Back in an hour or so! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepoy Posted 24 December , 2014 Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Here is the last Christmas Card from my collection - 1918/19. I would like to add a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014/15 to all Forum members and their Families Sepoy (Trevor) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon92 Posted 24 December , 2014 Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Stretching the subject a bit, this is the front of a contemporary Christmas Card I received yesterday from an old Cameron Highlander who served in WW2 into the 1960s, but his father was a WW1 veteran. Unfortunately, Cameron Highlanders are becoming fewer and fewer as time goes by. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Back again! Let's try the 6/Div card again: Front: and inside p.1: ...and here's the 2nd inside page of the 6/Div card: What exactly is he doing????? I simple can't work it out! Is he looking at himself in a hand-mirror, or something...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 There's a UK photographer called Martin Parr who published a book called 'Boring Postcards'. He collected postcards of really dull unimaginative images, things that made you think 'why ever did anyone think that would make a good image...?!'. It's a great book, btw....! Anyway.... that next one would be a contender for inclusion imho. It's a photo from Soltau POW camp in Germany. If you look in the bottom R-hand corner you'll notice that the photo was taken by one of the camp guards ("Feldw. Rieseberg" - or Sergeant Giantmountain, in rough translation). I imagine that it's his footprints that you can see snaking along towards the camera on the left of the pic. It was sent by Sgt. Major Will Crack, 2/Suffolk Rgt., to his nephew in Bury-St-Edmunds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Meanwhile, back to AB Cecil Tooke of the RND who spent most of the war in Doeberitz. He drew this, which is perhaps one of my favourite cards. It was sent by 6651 Pte. B. Cook, R.W.Kent Regt who was imprisoned in Friedrichsfeld. Clearly the POW cards were issued in more than one camp. here's a close up of the figures on the card: Jack (with the Ace of Hearts secreted up his sleeve): Tommy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Ploughing on into 1917.... Here's one from Mesopotamia: and another.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 I love this one from 275 Railway Co., RE. I love the sheer simplicity and functionality of the design, and it's failure to make any concessions to Christmas symbolism..... Let's have some tools, some rails, and some shells bursting near a bridge instead! Good choice sir...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancashire Fusilier Posted 24 December , 2014 Share Posted 24 December , 2014 What exactly is he doing????? I simple can't work it out! Is he looking at himself in a hand-mirror, or something...? I also have the original of that BEF Christmas Card, and the soldier is probably happily showing the pack of biscuits or bar of chocolate he has been given for Christmas. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. Regards, LF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 I also have the original of that BEF Christmas Card, and the soldier is probably happily showing the pack of biscuits or bar of chocolate he has been given for Christmas. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. Regards, LF Ha ha....! Yes, of course! He's got his foot on a box of biscuits! Seasons greeting to you too, Lancs Fusilier! A very down-beat card this time, featuring a rather weary-looking member of 7th Divisional Supply Column ASC.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Another contender for 'boring postcard' accolade. A sketch of the ruins of 'Indiarubber House' - was it an HQ? an OP? An RAP? Either way, who ever thought that this would make a good subject for a Christmas card...?! Obverse: Reverse: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Back to Ruhleben for the next couple.... This from a collection that came from Edward Frank Elliott, of whom I know nothing beyond the fact that he sent a large collection of images from the camp to his relatives near Croyden. It's typical of the 'wistful' style adopted by many prison-camp cards in the latter years of the war. And this card - also from Ruhleben - is from the collection belonging to Archie Barnett Saunders (see earlier in this thread)...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Here's a nice battalion card, from the 8/R. Sussex. The crossed rifle and pick badge was worn by pioneer battalions in addition to their regimental badge. Here's a close-up of the border - it's made up of pioneer badges And this is on the first inside page - such a dull un-christmas-like image - what is it meant to convey to the recipient...?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 This is an unusual one - quite rare, I understand. It's from 25th London Regt (Cyclists). and this is the reverse of the card: ....and here's the inside - very unusual and wholly informative card, with no space for a Xmas message....!: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Another Divisional card, this time 25/Div (whose symbol was a horse-shoe, reflected on the cover of the card) And here's the inside: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Another card from XI Corps, and another from the hand of Arthur Frank Umfreville Green (see earlier in the thread - he didn't bother with landscape sketching on this particular card, though) And here's a generic 'theatre' card, from the Balkans. Printed by Survey Co., RE, British Salonika Force. It's drawn by Lt. Col. George Denholm Armour, who served with Remounts in Salonika, but should really have been in the AOC or Tanks with a surname like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 This is a very unusual one from IX Corps. Unusual in that it's drawn and coloured by hand, and appears to have been sent by the artist to a Belgian family in Poperinghe. Anyone seen this image before? And what was so special about the Wytschaete-Messines area on 7 June 1917 that warranted its use on a 1917 Christmas card? Front: ....and Back: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 So far we've had Army and Navy - so maybe it's time for a couple of RFC cards from the Engine Repair Shops, address: "In The Field". ....and the inside: I have to say that I really like the dream-like quality to the image inside this card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Another RFC card, from the Engine Repair Shops. Inside front cover: ...and: Again, I really like this image! Another odd dream/nightmare quality to it. Not quite sure what he's supposed to be flying..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Back to Ruhleben for the next two, both from Xmas 1917, and both from the collection of Edward Frank Elliott. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Back to the ephemera. Here's a programme (maybe the only surviving one - it's on a single folded piece of very flimsy paper) of the Christmas Concert at the Employment Base Depot at Caserne Trupel. Now, I know 'Caserne' means 'Barracks', but I have no idea where Trupel is, or what the EBD was - something to do with the Labour Corps? Maybe someone here will enlighten me. Maybe someone here will recognize some names, too. Front cover: I'm trying to upload the centre-piece, but the system won't let me. I'll come back to this one later.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headgardener Posted 24 December , 2014 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2014 Here's a very sad one. Some years ago I bought a collection of papers and photos belonging to a young lad who died serving with the Lincolnshire Regt in 1918. This is his first and last Xmas card home from France. Envelope: Front cover: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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