Here we have the Naval Memorial at Portsmouth. It was built on Southsea Common to commemorate those who never came home from service with the Royal Navy during the First World War, almost fifty thousand men and women of all ages. Anyone who died at sea was lost forever, their bodies gone to the depths, or shattered into the air, so these could not have a grave for their physical remains on land.
The curious thing about this memorial is that there are two others, identical, one at Chatham and one at Plymouth. There is a reason for this, because when you joined the Royal Navy at that time you were given a kind of home port, of which there were three - Chatham, Plymouth, and Portsmouth.
New names were added after the Second World War, including many Commonwealth troops. This was done by building a memorial wall, which does not appear on our card.
This set was issued in two formats, varnished or unvarnished. The main difference is that the varnish seems to make the card turn yellowish to a greater or a lesser degree. However it is much less likely that you will find the unvarnished version, as early as the 1950s this was being retailed by the London Cigerette Card Company at a shilling a card and forty shillings a set, whereas the varnished ones were a penny ha`penny each and only seven shillings and sixpence a set.