Our next set, another March issue, is very intriguing, for it was issued a fair few years after the end of the First World War, in the mid nineteen-twenties, when the true cost of the war, in monetary, and human costs, was well known and any enthusiasm for such a thing had definitely ended. Maybe that is why the second series is of a hundred cards? All this makes me think that it was designed to be issued during that war, but either through paper restrictions, or whatever, it was readied but never circulated - then, after the war, it was found, and decided that it should not be wasted.
This is backed up by the fact that all the first sets that John Player issued after the war were re-issues. The first of all was "Counties and Their Industries", originally circulated in 1914, and re-issued in November 1919. Others were :
- Artillery in Action", extra large - printed in 1917, a few cards of which, somehow, made it into packets before anyone noticed, but then were kept, to finally be released in May 1920.
- "Cries of London", the second standard-sized series - printed in 1916, again had a few released, and then the issue was shelved until 1922.
- "British Livestock," extra large size - originally issued in May 1916, then reprinted with blue, not brown backs, and circulated in January 1923
- "Players Past and Present, standard size - originally issued in June 1916, then reissued in May 1923, with a few adjustments, caused by the deaths of some of the subjects
- "Miniatures" - standard size - printed in June 1916, again had a few released, then were circulated from June 1923.
- "Characters from Dickens", extra large size, originally issued in June 1914, reprinted for circulation in June 1923.
In our original reference book to the issues of John Player, RB.17, published in 1950, this group is listed as follows :
ARMY, CORPS & DIVISIONAL SIGNS, 1914-1918. Small cards. Fronts in colour. Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Home issues.
13. 50. A Series of 50. Numbered 1-50. Issued March, 1924. Two back printings.
A. Reversed letter panel "John Player & Sons" joining vertical frame-lines.
B. With a fractional white space between the above panel and the framelines
Varieties - Nos. 13 and 36 are known with "Player`s Cigarettes", etc, omitted from front of cards.14. 100. 2nd Series. 51-150. Issued February, 1925.
So there is a little explanation needed of some of this. Firstly, what is meant by "Reversed letter panel" is that the letters are printed in white on a coloured ground, and not that the letters are back to front. Secondly, the "fractional white space" means that sometimes this panel mentioned above extends right to the lines that makes up the frame round the text, and sometimes there is a thin vertical line of white between the panel and the frame. And to save you looking it up as well, card 13 is "The Guards Division", with the eye in the shield, and card 36 is the "47th London Division", with a white flower made of diamonds. I have looked at quite a few of these online and have not yet found any without the wording.
In our World Tobacco Issues Index, the description above is much truncated, though, to be fair, it was only issued six years after the John Player one, and it was still well in stock and easy to buy. It appears as :
ARMY, CORPS & DIVISIONAL SIGNS, 1914-1918. Sm. ... P72-62
- "A Series of 50". Nd 1-50.
A. Back with base panel joining vertical framelines.
B. Back with fractional space between the above- "2nd Series. 51-150". (100)
This text remains more or less the same in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, apart from the excision of the word "Nd", and, of course, a new code, which is P644-134
This regiment, the 21st Corps, was formed in Palestine in August 1917 and was commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Edward Stanislaus Bulfin, who had been at the first Battle of Ypres, on the Western Front, fought in October and November of 1914, as well as the second Battle of Ypres, in April and May of 1915, during which tear gas was deployed to devastating effect. He was badly affected by this, and had to leave France and recuperate in England, and, though he did return to the Western Front in 1916, it was not for long, before he was sent to a more suitable, hotter climate, in Palestine, as the commander of XXI Corps. This card tells us that "All its War Service was with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force" and, that when the war ended, it was occupying Beirut and Tripolis.
As for the green, and for the shamrock, this, on the card, is cited as being a "four leafed shamrock, for luck". But there is another reason too, because the commander was Irish, born in Rathfarnham, County Dublin, on the 6th of November 1862. And that made him in his fifties at the Battle of Ypres.