Changing Comic Post Cards when the First World War started

When the First World War broke out there was a rush of new post cards which showed our soldiers in a good light. 

But there was a problem in that in the years before the war there were "comic" post cards which painted a less favourable view of our armed forces. 

The answer was to redraw and reissue the cards to show things as they were now that our gallant men were fighting at the front.

See what changes were made

Note - If you could only afford one domestic servant she did all the jobs around the house and was often referred to as "The General."

The Hall at Lockers Park School, Hemel Hempstead

The Hall at Lockers Park School

Yet another view of this interesting school, published by P. A. Buchanan in the 1930s

The Old Market Square, Codicote, circa 1900

The Old Market Square, Codicote

A Silhouette of St Albans Abbey from 1904

An unusual early post card of St Albans Abbey

More Information

A Free Sample of Eau de Cologne (in 1904)

Post Cards

St Albans

Sales promotion through your letter box is nothing new. 100 years ago it could come in the shape of an interesting post card for your collection. This card was sent from Coln, Germany, by a firm making Eau de Cologne, telling Mrs Hodding of St Albans than she can collect a sample from St Albans' major department store, J. Fisk & Son.

I have started to set up a page bringing together interesting examples of early advertising post cards. Have you any examples I could use?

An 18th Century Mausoleum at Watford carries a hidden message

Post Cards

The postman can easily see what you have written on a postcard, and lovers often found ways of coding a message. Some wrote in shorthand, while others used special codes. The sender of this card, showing an interesting mausoleum which doubled as an ice house, uses a very simple device to obscure the quite innocent message it carried.

Watford

For more information on the card see

Thomas MEADOWS' Mausoleum at Watford, 1781

and for more on how messages were concealed see Hidden Messages

Identifying WW1 post cards of soldiers in Hertfordshire.

The Military

Before Christmas I posted Something for you to do over Christmas to raise money for charity - the idea being to try and identify more soldiers who were in Hertfordshire from old post cards and other pictures. I report on three responses below.

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8th London (Howitzer) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery

The First is a post card showing soldiers grouped round a howitzer. Fiona tells me that the officer standing behind the gun is Eustace Nugent Fitz-George de Radcliffe Cooper. This confirms that the picture shows the unit which was based at Apsley, Hemel Hempstead between August 1914 and March 1915. As a result I have posted an old newspaper report from 1914 which mentions several soldiers who were members of the Brigade. Because a number of names are on record it should be possible to identify further officers and men who are in the picture - but I put this up as a challenge for visitors to this site.

More Information

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2/14th Battalion, London Scottish at North Mimms

Peter has kindly provided five digital images of the London Scottish on a musketry course at North Mimms in August 1915, Information on the back of one of the post cards allows the soldiers to be identified as part of the second line battalion, the first line battalion having been one of the first battalions to see action in October 1914. While there is not definite evidence it seems likely that the musketry course involved shooting on the Chalk Hill Firing Range..

More Information

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Jon has suggested that this picture of the Imperial Service Division at St Albans shows them on parade on the former St Albans School playing fields at Belmont Hill. The large house in the middle background with multiple chimneys would therefore be Torrington House - close to the site of Holywell House owned by the Marlboroughs/Spencers well into the 1800s. It would have been close to the White Hart HQ.

More Information

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Donate Here

I am still interested in any further information on troops who were based in Hertfordshire in the 1914-1919 period - and as promised in the earlier post I have made a donation of £20 to support the Mentally ill in Hertfordshire.

An Unknown House near New Barnet ???

Where is it?

This card was sent by "Vic" who may have got a job working there, to Miss Ettie Plant on 25 March 1909. It was posted at New Barnet, so must be somewhere nearby. Can anyone identify it.

Look out - There's a Husband About

 A Karaktus Post Card

Karaktus published some comic cards in St Albans in 1908/9 and as there is only a small number I am trying to identify all of them. I have just acquired a copy of No 7, and was amused by the message on the back. It was posted in February 1909 to a Mrs Gallop, of 4 Carlton Terrace, Hastings and reads:

I did not like to think you were disappointed so have sent this to show what will happen if I come to see you too often. 

Yours as ever, Bob

A Unusual Uniform - So what did this man do for a living?

Click for larger image of badges

St Albans

This man is clearly wearing some kind of uniform - but it is clearly not a military one, or for a service such as the police or fire brigade. The badge appears to be a set of initials - but what did they stand for? And as the collar has the number 61 does this indicate that he was one of many who wore a similar uniform?

The photograph was taken by Herbert Edward Birdsey, who lived in St Peter's Street, St Albans, in the early decades of the 20th century. I would be interested to hear of other examples of his work.

Two Portraits by the Landon family of Watford

Unknown Sitter, c1903

Watford

Several members of the Landon family of Watford had an interest in photography, with shops in St Albans Road, Watford. This post card may be by Jessie Landon as it has been printed on an undivided back card - with a printed Christmas message - suggesting a date of around 1903.

I have also added a later portrait, of an unknown invalid young lady, taken by Percy Landon, probably in the 1920s.

Did Jerome Ltd (photographers) produce any Hertfordshire photographs?

Cottered

The Japanese Garden at Cottered

A recent query drew my attention to the Cottered page and this photograph of the Japanese Garden which was started in 1906 with further developments in 1923.

Post Cards, Etc

I wanted to check the date and the back of the card had the name Jerome Ltd. The company had a wide number of shops throughout Great Britain between the wars, and up to the 1950s - but most of their output seems to have been portrait photographs. A check of trade directories between the wars failed to show any shops in Hertfordshire and it may be that this picture, and another, currently on sale on ebay, showing a hut at High Leigh, Hoddesden, may have been taken by someone else and Jerome Ltd simply produced the prints. So have you ever come across any post cards, or other pictures linked to Hertfordshire by Jerome Ltd?

A Post Card from 1875

Post Cards

Some years ago I started work on a series of pages on the history of Post Cards to help date cards of Hertfordshire - and maybe some day I will extend it up to the end of the First World War. However I have just added an early Post Card from 1875 to the section about Post Cards with undivided backs.

Post card sent by W. H. Rowe of Hemel Hempstead in 1875.

The start was the introduction of cards in 1870 with a stamp printed on the address side and a completely plain back for the message. After a time some firms purchased these cards in large numbers and printed information on the back - perhaps just their name and address, in other cases advertising material. Later plain cards, where the sender could attach the stamp were used, and it was only around 1900 that picture post cards came into existence.

Same Picture - Two different Publishers - Why?

Hermitage Road, Hitchin

This card was published by the post card pioneers, Blum & Degan not later than 1905 - and was later reprinted (with a heraldic shield) by Francis Frith & Co. - giving a negative number from 1901. There is something of a mystery as to how this happened - see An Interesting Pair of Post Cards.

J. T. Newman - an important Berkhamsted Photographer

Barbara contacted me about some old family photographs by James Thomas Newman, of his family and possible relatives, including some by a photographer called Piggott. I had been planning to update the Newman page for some time - and the revised page gives details of the relationship between Theophilus Piggott, a photographer of Leighton Buzzard, Beds, William Coles of Watford, and James Newman of Berkhamsted. Over the next few weeks (probably after the Olympics) I plan to provide many more examples of Newman's work - and would be very interested to hear from you if you know of examples of his early photographs, books and magazines which used his photographs, and post cards of events (including the Inns of Court Regiment when they were in Berkhamsted during the First World War). 

Another hidden message on a post card

Yet another card with a coded message. Can you read the message? 
Note the angle of the stamp.

See Hidden Messages 
for the decoded version and the identity of the sender.

More about Hertfordshire Post Cards

Post Cards, and early photographs, are widely used as illustrations, and years ago I started to set up a section of the web site to document the relevant history, together with biographies of the main photographers and publishers. While the pages were on the site they were not well publicized and while many of the pages are "Under Construction" they are still usable and I have decided to open up access.

A new link "Post Cards" has been added to the main menu and there are separate alphabetical indexes for Artists. Hertfordshire Photographers and Publishers, and National Post Card Publishers who have published cards relating to the County. 

As post cards or early pictures are added to the site information will be added to the pages )(including new pages as required) and when sufficient information on a particular person has been collected a biography will be added.