So for our first clue we chose the most usual form of photographic card - black and white. And it is of a footballer, because our football team is probably one of the things that first come to mind about our national identity, whether that be the men`s or the women`s game.
And this man, William Gillespie is a great representation that our lives are not entirely one sided - for he was born in Ireland, played in England, and this card was issued in Scotland. In fact his International debut was in February 1913, playing for Ireland versus England, and scoring two goals.
We have a difference of opinion here because the card says "Adventure and Vanguard Football Photos" and yet most catalogues, and our reference books, simply call it "Football Photos", We are going to have a foot in both camps and list it in the card index under both titles, as well as cross reference the magazine titles to the publisher, D. C. Thompson.
Now, of course, the two missing names were magazines. "Adventure" was published from 1921 to 1961, at which time it was incorporated within The Rover (1922 - 1973), whilst "Vanguard" was actually "The Vanguard", and it seems to have been only distributed within Scotland between 1921 and 1926. However there was also a much earlier boys magazine called "Vanguard", which was equally short lived, only running from 1907 to 1909. Perhaps that is why there was a "The" prefixed to the D. C. Thompson version? I have to say that there seems to be a problem with this, unless I am looking at it wrong - because usually these co-issued sets were split between two magazines at the same time and you had to buy both to get a complete set. However Scottish children would have rather an unfair advantage if "The Vanguard" was indeed only issued in Scotland.
Anyway this set is described in our first British Trade Index (RB.25), published in 1962, as : "FOOTBALL PHOTOS. Sm. 66 x 35. Black glossy half-tones. Nd. (40) (A)(V)." And it is pretty similarly worded in our updated version, except that the (A) and (V appear after the title, and the date follows thereafter.
By the way, there is something very important indeed about William Gillespie, cartophilically, and that is that he has one card with two different pictures in the 1925 Gallaher set of "Famous Footballers". And you can see those at https://www.tcdb.com/GalleryP.cfm/pid/205080/Billy-Gillespie?ColType=0&sYear=0&sTeam=&sCardNum=&sNote=&sSetName=&sBrand=
And there is also something else important about this set of cards, because it contains the "Rookie Card", or the first ever cartophilic appearance, of the great "Dixie" Dean,