So here we have David Lloyd George, our Prime Minister at the time of the Treaty of Versailles. Though he was there simply to represent us, he also played much of a part in trying to calm things down, for France, under Georges Clemenceau, was very much against the Germans, and America, spearheaded by Woodrow Wilson was rather too easily swayed, so as not to be seen as being on the offensive.
Whilst, naturally, those who had been directly affected by the war very much felt the same way as France Lloyd George was a clever man and he knew that Germany could well have a vital role to play should the recent Russian Revolution come alive again and start to spread towards us. And if Germany was demoralised by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, they would possibly seek to get us back by either allowing the Bolsheviks quick and easy passage through their country, or even by joining in with the fight, and turning it against us.
This set first appears in our Ardath Reference Book RB.6 but there is no code, because at that time the cards were simply listed in order not given a number order. In fact in several of my early RBs a previous owner, way less numerically challenged than I, has actually added the numbers in pen. Perhaps others did too, and this suggested that numbering the sets in future might be a useful practise.
The write up in that book is :
April 1937. 50 EMPIRE PERSONALITIES (titled series). Size 1 7/16 x 2 11/16. Numbered 1-50. Printed in two colours from half-tone blocks and varnished, titled, white margins. Backs, printed in bronze blue, adhesive, with description. Issued with State Express and Ardath Cigarettes. Also issued in Jersey.
Now as you might imagine this was shortened for the World Tobacco Issues Indexes, to simply : "EMPIRE PERSONALITIES. Sm. Nd. (50).
I do wonder why this set being very much relevant even down to the title, was not exported to other countries - for it included, amongst others, Stanley Melbourne Bruce (Prime Minister of Australia), Rt. Hon Michael Joseph Savage (the first Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand) H.E.H. Asaf Jah (Nizam of Hyderabad), and Mohammed Shah (the Aga Khan). And another inclusion, which literary lovers may not realise, is John Buchan, author of the Thirty Nine Steps but showing here as John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada