From the Front Line

My blip today is of postcards sent back during the First World War to his Lordship's Grandmother and family in Dundee, from his uncles serving at the front.

We imagine that they were provided by the British for the troops to send - it doesn't seem possible that they would be available to buy in France. *

Attached to each card is beautifully embroidered silk material with a specific message. I imagine they would be much treasured by the recipients, the more so if the sender was one of the fallen.
In this case they have been saved to be handed down the generations and lovingly collected by his Lordship who is fascinated by social and military history.

The writing on the back of the cards is in pencil and has become faint with the passage of time, but indicates a great deal of worry about how the grandmother and the younger siblings are coping on their own. One son writes that he wishes he were at home to mend her broken pulley.

However now his Lordship feels the time has come, given that he has no grandchildren, to bequeath them to a military museum where they could be exhibited to the public.

He has graciously allowed me access to them today, seeing as he has escaped to the hills while I act as general factotum in the Dower House.

* EDIT
Tonto McDuff has commented that they were made by French women for the troops. We live and learn.