I am delighted to be able to bring you this, for we have featured this set before in our newsletter for the 18th of May 2024, albeit by another maker (W.D. & H.O. Wills). Even better, that card showed the other sort of image that is also included in this set, a half length figure of a man in uniform - as opposed to this, which only shows a cut off sleeve and empty hat.
As this is a Card of the Day, it inherits the mantle of being the home page for all the sets, which are :
- Franklyn Davey & Co. (October 1916) - https://csgb.co.uk/cardoftheday/2025-09-25
- F. & J. Smith (1911)
- W.D. & H.O. Wills (July 1909) - https://csgb.co.uk/publications/newsletter/2024-05-18 [in newsletter, scroll down to Monday 20th May]
Our Franklyn Davey version was actually issued quite a bit later than the others, seven years after it had first appeared in Wills` packets. That leads to the anomaly on the text of this card that states "Their numbers have increased very rapidly of late, there being 55 in 1908 compared with 35 twelve years ago." I cannot trace a figure for how many Rear Admirals there were in 1916. but I imagine it had risen quite considerably.
Sadly for cartophilists, only that Wills version had its details copiously examined as part of a separate reference book, though the information can be taken to be the same for the other two. And we do know that the Smith`s version is rather a challenge for the type-collector for it not only comes with and without a descriptive back, but you can get eleven different advertisement backs with descriptive text and six different advertisement backs without descriptive text, five of which are identical to the other version, and one, `Squaw Thick Black Tobacco` which is unique to this version of the set.
The first listing of our version, therefore, comes in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, where it is recorded as :
- NAVAL DRESS & BADGES. Sm. Nd. (50). See H.172 ... F52-14
This text is repeated in our updated version, save the card code, which has changed to F756-460.