I thought this was rather an odd card to have in a military related set - it looks more suited to a set on London history, or banking.
However, in July 1914 it was already pretty certain to those in the know that we were heading towards a war, which, though fought in Europe, would affect Great Britain too. And in that month there was a sudden crisis, caused, mostly, by word of mouth and not fact. Many banks closed, including, as shown here, the London Stock Exchange, which, as one of, if not the most esteemed financial centre in the world, served to slump the banking world still more.
The Stock Exchange was closed for five months, starting on Friday the 31st of July. The Foreign Exchange had already shut, earlier in the week. And the banks had also rationed money, deciding to keep the gold coins safe in the vault and pay depositors in paper money. The smallest one of those at that time was a five pound note, but that was not easy to change, and so it became common practise to go to the Bank of England to change them, which also led to newspaper pictures that were wrongly reported as queues of people trying to get their money out.
The crisis was only eased when someone had a brainwave and printed smaller one pound notes. And they also printed advertisements that coaxed the general public into taking their sovereigns into their nearest bank and changing them for the new, lighter to carry, notes. This was actually a bit of a waste of effort, as few members of the general public had sovereigns just laying about. But reportedly it did inspire the middle and upper classes to do just that and it is thought that this was the main event which saved the banks, by restoring its gold stocks.
It was not until the seventh of July that the banks re-opened - and the Stock Exchange stayed shut until the fourth of January, 1915.
The set first appears in our original Wills reference book part three, RB.14 – which is more correctly known as "The Cigarette Card Issues of W.D. & H.O. Wills Parts I and II (revised) and Part III". This was edited by Edward Wharton-Tigar, and published in March 1949 as a limited edition of five hundred copies.
It is listed there as :
- 114. 50. WAR PICTURES. Fronts printed by letterpress in black and white; backs in black with descriptive text. Australian issues, 1915.
A. With "Wills`s Specialities" advertisement on backs.
B. With "Havelock" advertisement on backs.
There is actually a codicil to this, as in our original Wills reference book part four, RB.16 – which is more correctly known as "The Cigarette Card Issues of W.D. & H.O. Wills Parts I, II, and III (revised) and Part IV". Once more this was edited by Edward Wharton-Tigar, and published in 1950 as a limited Edition of five hundred copies. And what is revealed there is very interesting indeed, namely :
- 114. WAR PICTURES - see page 119.
The 50 subjects in this series are similar to those in Smith`s "War Incidents", 1st and 2nd Series".
Thanks to a reader we can show you this actual card in the Smith`s version - or one of them, as the Smith`s set is vari-backed, with six permutations - advertising different brands. These are :
* Glasgow Mixture Mild Medium & Full
* "Orchestra" Cigarettes
* "Pinewood" Mixture
* Squaw Thick Black Tobacco
* "Studio" Cigarettes
* Sun Cured Mixture
Also note that this is two series simply because the Smith`s are each of twenty-five cards, whereas the Wills is a single set of fifty.
We also know that both the Smith and the Wills version were issued in 1915, but not the month of the Smith`s version. We only know the Wills month because when the five Wills books were reprinted under one hard cover they included a list of issue dates from the Wills "Works Magazine. This also proves that the Wills cards were printed in England, then shipped to Australia and issued there. And this means that only the Smith`s version would have been seen in Great Britain at the time, not the Wills.
Returning to the Wills versions, they next appear in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, recorded as :
- WAR PICTURES. Sm. Black and white. Nd. (50). See W/114 and H.405. ... W62-252
A. "Wills`s Specialities" back..
B. "Havelock" back. Brand issue.
This text is identical in the updated version of that volume, save the card code, which is now W675-385.A and W675-385.B