Well, first of all, many thanks to Mr. Price, who has supplied the pictures for this set and freed me to carry on my indexing...
Here is Queen Elizabeth II, as a young girl, and it is one of the cards cited to be her "Rookie" card, the other two being Stephen Mitchell`s "A Gallery of 1934" (card 2/50) and W.D. & H.O. Wills` "The Reign of HM King George V - 1910-1935" (card 36/50). Now we know that ours beats the Wills set, because that was not issued until April. It is just a case of finding the month of issue for the Mitchell`s set, somewhere.
There was no Carreras reference book, so the first recording of this set was in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, as :
POPULAR PERSONALITIES. Oval shape, 68 x 30. Nd. See Ha.629. Special album issued. ... C18-66
1. British issue (72). Nos. 1-10 members of the Royal Family.
2. Irish issue (72). Alternative pictures for Nos. 1-10.
The same text appears in the updated version of this book, but a new card code.
That "Ha" number sends us off to the handbook, which is the original 1955 one published by the London Cigarette Card Company, and it is from their catalogue that I extracted the date of issue, as well as the fact that the standard set was retailed at 1d. a card or 8/6 a set, and the ten Irish cards were on a different line in that catalogue, but no price was given, only a line to show that none were currently in stock.
Unlike many handbook references, this entry does not signify that there are other issuers, it simply lists the different cards as :
Ha.629. POPULAR PERSONALITIES (titled series). Oval cards. 70 x 30 m/m. Front in colour. Adhesive back. Issued by Carreras. There are two different subjects at Nos. 1-10, as follows :-
Normal Issue Issue in Eire
1. His Majesty King George V Jimmy O`Dea
2. Her Majesty Queen Mary Count John McCormack
3. H.R.H. The Prince of Wales Mr. G. Bernard Shaw
4. H.R.H. The Duke of York Niall McGuinness
5. H.R.H. The Duchess of York *
6. H.R.H. Princess Elizabeth B. J. Donnelly
7. H.R.H. Princess Margaret *
8. H.R.H. The Duke of Gloucester R. M. N. Tisdall
9. H.R.H. The Duke of Kent Pat O`Callaghan
10. H.R.H. The Duchess of Kent ** Not yet seen in the issue in Eire
The other numbers (11 to 72) appear to be identical in both issues, there is no difference in format between the normal issue and the replacements used in Eire
By the time of our updated handbook all ten cards were known, the missing three being 5. Maureen O`Sullivan, 7. Rt. Hon. Alderman Alfred Byne and 10. G.L. Rogers.