Now here we have Admiral Lord Fisher, and the very last lines of the back text say it all, for it says "He is the originator of the Dreadnought type of vessel".
Admiral Lord Fisher, or John Arbuthnot Fisher, First Baron Fisher was born on the 25th of January 1841. He much preferred being called Jackie or Jacky. He was in the Royal Navy for sixty years, and he is chiefly acknowledged today for his wide ranging reforms to the entire service, from gunnery to ship design and construction, as well as to brand new craft. The Dreadnought was one of his first chances to put these beliefs in to practise before the build rather than to try and retrofit them to an ancient vessel. He had only been First Sea Lord for two years when Dreadnought was launched.
This is a lovely set, and the sculptural quality stands out, yet I am sure some readers may find it uninspiring in its greyness.
Our 1956 World Tobacco Issues Index tells us that this set was issued in two versions. Both are small cards, measuring 68 x 36 m/m and they are summarised as "black and white reproductions of busts. Nd. (35)" However it then splits the set into the two versions,
A. titled "Famous Officers"
B. titled "Hero Series", but only cards 1-21 had been seen, not the full set of 35 "Famous Officers"
Singleton and Cole were founded in 1870, and were still trading at the time of this volume.
In our updated World Tobacco Issues Index it still says much the same except it calls them "imitation busts". And oddly there have been no more cards discovered of the "Hero Series", it is static at just cards 1-21
Now there is an oddity because neither of these mention something which appears in the London Cigarette Card Catalogue of 1950. They have the set listed for sale in three versions. The first is A1, "Famous Officers" back, toned card 1915. This is listed as being retailed for between 6/- to 17/6 for odd cards, and £30 for a complete set in that printing. Then they have A2. "Famous Officers" white card, which are listed at between 12/6 and 40/- for odds but not available as a set. It seems very odd that there were enough of the white cards to list them separately, so where did they go and why were they not included in our index? Then lastly they have the "Hero Series", listed at 100/- to 240/- for odd cards, but no sets.