So here we have J. Easson and he played for Portsmouth. And H.M.S. Dreadnought was launched at Portsmouth, on the 10th of February 1906, by His Majesty the King (Edward the Seventh). It had been a very quick build, just four months long, then there were trials, for speed and for performance. But on passing these, she became the flagship of the Home Fleet in April 1907.
Now when I mentioned this set to someone I was told it was an interesting one, but it turns out that it is actually one third of what is more correctly an interesting group of sets.
First to be issued was a set called "Famous Footballers", that is a set of fifty cards with grey brown backs which have the top title box as a white line drawing of a goal mouth, and the bottom box as a white line drawing of a football, crossed pennants behind the F.A. Cup (I think it is the F.A. Cup) and a pair of football boots. The thing that is most unusual is that there is not a word on the card about the set being issued by Godfrey Phillips, and therefore it ended up at the back of the World Tobacco Issues Index under ZB5-3
Next up came our set, "International Caps", and that is virtually the same as the above, except for the back design - and four cards -
19 (FF - H. Carter of Sunderland / IC - A Geldard Everton)
21 (FF - A Young of Huddersfield / IC - E Hart Leeds United)
31 (FF - E J Drake of Arsenal / IC - W Alsford Tottenham)
34 (FF - R Barclay of Sheffield United / IC - T Cooper of Liverpool).
Presumably the first names listed from the Famous Footballers set were not international players, and so they had to be subsituted. However is there anyone out there who can confirm this? And if anyone has the entire pair of sets, can you confirm that all the other subjects are the same, and the texts are identical? Many thanks.
Lastly, and not issued until 1937, came a set called "Soccer Stars" which we show as our Card of the Day for the 24th of November 2025