Our second clue was the subject The Honourable Herbert Henry Asquith, and it was he who became Chancellor of the Exchequer in the new Liberal government. One of his acts was unpopular, for he raised the tax on unearned income. However this paid for the pensions that were being introduced.
This Act came into effect on January the first, 1909, and that became known as Pensions Day. It was a Friday, and some people still get their pensions on that day though not all, for that would be too much work for even a computer! Today the day of your payment is based upon your National Insurance Number, 0-19 meaning Monday, 20-39 Tuesday, 40-59 Wednesday, 60-79 Thursday and 80-99 on Fridays. So if you are not yet of pensionable age this may allow you to have fun finding out when you will be paid.
Now there is a twist to the tale of this set, because it celebrates Great War Celebrities, all of whom were on the Allied side. But it is to the other side, and specifically to Germany, that we almost certainly owe many of the ideas of our own pension scheme. This was introduced by Otto Von Bismarck in 1889, and it was a universal plan for all, a tax paid by all workers, even household servants, and it gave them a lump sum on their leaving their employment at the age of seventy.
However, as we will see at the close of the week, there were earlier schemes, and similar.
The first appearance of this set is in our World Tobacco Issues Index in 1956, where it is described as :
CELEBRITIES OF THE GREAT WAR (A). Sm. 69 x 41. Black and white photos. Unnd. (36). See H.135.
This has been shortened and altered in our updated version, to “CELEBRITIES OF THE GREAT WAR (A). Sm. 69 x 41. B & W photos. Unnd. (36). See RB.113/407 "
The black and white of these photos seems to have aged in mysterious ways, some being rendered so dark as not to see anything at all and some being lightened and slightly tinged to reddish brown.
H.135, by the way, contains a list of all the subjects, because they are unnumbered. However it is only in the original London Cigarette Card Handbook, not our updated one. It also reveals that there is a plain backed anonymous version of the set