welcome to the end of another week, and apparently, as I type this, there are just 44 days to Christmas. There are hours, minutes and seconds as well, but I will stick with the days, thanks. However, if you find this idea appealing then just nip over to https://www.xmasclock.com/ and set it as your home page. This reminds me that we will be very grateful for any scans of unusual Christmas items that we can feature as our Christmas Card of the Day as we get into December.
So what do we have for you this week? Well we have a curious coincidence, two fateful trips to sea, a sixties songstress, a rather delayed Coronation, a walk in the country, and a very grateful son. Read on for all the gen.....
Today is World Pneumonia Day, and the theme for this year is "Pneumonia affects everyone". And that is true, it is no respector of wealth or fame.
Our card shows Calamity Jane, and her cause of death was Pneumonia, aged just 51.
And sadly Doris Day, who played her, to great effect, in the film "Calamity Jane" (1953) also died of pneumonia, at 97 years old.
Actually there is something intriguing about this bio-pic, for if you watch it, at one point, there is trouble breaks out in the saloon/theatre; this revolves around the establishment owner promising the appearance of a New York actress but everything going awry. This is why Calamity Jane/Doris Day goes off to Chicago to get another actress, one whose picture appears on cigarette cards. You will all have to watch it now!
The original Calamity Jane was born Martha Jane Cannary in 1852. Our card calls her "One of the most famous women of the West" though it says "her real name was Jane Berks". This is slightly incorrect, but refers to the fact that she lived with a Clinton Burke for some years, then they were briefly married, during which time she was known as Martha Jane Burke, a name which also appears on her grave at Tombstone. A "Plainswoman" by the way, was not a special term for anything, it was just an ordinary person who lived on, or more usually moved to, the Great Plains of America, the flatlands, east of the Rockies and west of the Mississippi. The card tells us just some of her many exploits, she was an Indian scout, an aide to Generals Custer and Miles, and a government mail carrier. And it shows her in trousers, which she was prone to sport, finding them more comfortable and less exposing; she would have been an early wearer of such, as the first combination of pants and a skirt was only designed for women in the year before her birth.
She also appears on many cards of Topps "Round Up", issued in 1956, but a set you are much more likely to find in America. Leaf Gum`s "Good Guys and Bad Guys" (1966) also features her on one card, number 62, which starts by saying "Calamity Jane should have been a man. She wore men`s clothing chewed tobacco, was a good rider and did men`s jobs all her life". It also mentions a time in her life that few know about, when she nursed the sick of a smallpox epidemic. The card says this was "probably the only womanly thing she ever did", though there are rumours that she did some time as a dance hall girl, and also entertained in a far more intimate manner. The card glosses over that, but ends by saying that "Her days of glory behind, she toured with a show back East, but her health failed. On Aug. 2 1903, she died, saying "Bury me next to Bill".
There seems to be a lot of conflicting stories about this relationship with Wild Bill Hickok. Some say they were great friends for many years, that they married in the early 1870s, and that the woman who claimed to be their daughter was telling the truth. Others say that he swept into town one night for a card game, she met him there, and as the game reached a conclusion he was killed. However one fact is undeniably true - she was indeed buried beside him....
Today in 1901 saw the Caister-on-Sea Lifeboat Disaster. This card is very light so if anyone has a better copy do please scan and send. Many thanks.
The lifeboat was called the "Beauchamp" and she set to sea in the very early morning, despite appalling weather, heavy winds, driving rain, and high seas, in order to attempt to rescue a vessel which had stuck on the Barber Sands and sent up the flare just before midnight. However the weather was just too bad and they could not even get alongside. They tried several times, but were repeatedly driven back, and the final time it capsized, trapping the crew beneath the boat. James Haylett, pictured here, was not aboard, he was a former coxwain; his grandson was also not aboard, but had helped to launch the boat earlier. They both ran to the scene and managed to get three men out, John Hubbard, Charles Knights, (James` son-in law) and Walter Haylett (James` grandson). These three men were the only survivors. However the other nine were dead, and that included two other Hayletts, Aaron Walter, the current coxwain, and James Junior, who had been the previous coxwain - plus Charles and William Brown, Charles George, George King, Harry Knights, John Smith, and William Wilson.
At the inquest into the disaster, James Haylett asked why the men repeatedly tried to reach the stricken vessel. He stood bravely, mourning his losses, and said it was the way, that they could and would never give up, that Caister men never turn back. As you will see on our card, this phrase entered history forever; and not just on this sign to an inn built over fifty years after the disaster, for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute motto would become "Never turn back" too. And James Haylett would win the R.N.L.I. Gold Medal for his rescue attempt.
This is not the only card of the disaster, because it also appears on a Guinea Gold, which must have been issued very shortly afterwards. This is said to show five men struggling in the water, but I think perhaps it might show the rescue of the three men and the two Hayletts. I imagine it must have come from a newspaper, so will do a bit of research.
Here we have HMS Ark Royal, as seen on the less usual large sized set of John Players` "Modern Naval Craft", with a much more vibrant yellow background.
And why she is here is that today in 1941 she sank, after being torpedoed by the German U-Boat the day before. However out of her entire crew only one person was killed - a forty-four year old Able Seaman called Edward Mitchell.
She was designed in 1934, and as our card tells us she was laid down the following year by Cammell Laird. Laid down means that the keel is put down in the dry dock, and she is considered to have started on her build. She was completed in October 1938. The design was a bit different to earlier aircraft carriers, most of which had been conversions; her two hangars and her actual flight deck forming part of the hull and being built from the ground up.
For some reason she was considered a lucky ship; she certainly came through unscathed until her final hours, despite chasing Graf Spee and the Bismarck, doing convoy duty to and from Malta, and serving in the Norway Campaign. She was also there when the first U-Boats were sunk. She also stayed afloat after she was torpedoed, something which almost certainly led to the very successful evacuation and low loss of life. However when she was being towed back to her base in Gibraltar she gave up and finally sank, about thirty miles out.
You will also find her in action on Amalgamated Tobacco "Famous British Ships" series 2 (1952) 16/25, which tells us that the Germans repeatedly claimed in their propaganda that she had been successfully sunk. And she is also featured on at least one card as part of Wills "Life in the Royal Navy" (1939) 33/50.
Here we have Petula Clark, or to give her full name Petula Sally Olwen Clark, who was born on this day in 1932. Her name shows her Welsh heritage, though she was born in Surrey
Her career started during the Second World War, where she appeared on the radio. It covers not just singing, but also song writing, as well as appearing in musicals on stage and screen, and in many films.
Most of her cards seem to have been issued in Europe; this one is anonymous but was actually by Leaf Gum. It is number eight of a series of ninety cards. It is often said to be a Dutch company but it was actually founded in Chicago, during the Second World War - and they have a huge claim to fame, for it was they who issued the first set of cards in full colour to be produced after the war ended; these are known as "All Star Baseball" and you can read more about them at P.S.A./Leaf
now here is an interesting tale, for today in 1272 Henry III died. His successor was this man, Edward I. However, Edward was a bit busy, off on the crusades, and he did not get home to be crowned for two years!
This technically left us without a King, though a rather elaborate process led to the Barons all swearing their allegiance to do his bidding despite his absence.
He finally returned to England in 1274, travelled to London, and was crowned on August the 19th of that year at Westminster Abbey, aged thirty five.
Our card shows him much later, near his death in 1307, when he was sixty-eight; and it also tells us that he was advancing with his army at the time, to fight Robert the Bruce. He actually died at Burgh -on-Sands and was succeeded by his son, Edward II.
Edward I reportedly left instructions that his bones were to carried on in any campaigns against the Scottish, but he wanted his heart to return to the Holy Land. This did not happen, and he was buried intact at Westminster Abbey.
Now here is a lovely card, for Take a Hike Day.
However though it is known as "Hiking (snow)" this might not be the case, for it has no caption.
And though the set is catalogued as "Sporting Girls" it has no title either.
It was actually issued in 1913 in India. It must have made the smokers heart burst with notions of being back at home amongst the pines with such a beautiful girl, rather than being alternately boiled by the heat or drenched by the monsoon.
Take a Hike Day sounds rather impolite, but it is actually an exhortation to get out there and look at the landscape which surrounds you, whether that be country or town. Hike just means a walk in pleasant surroundings, and it combines many forms of keeping fit. It also gets you outdoors, raises your heart rate, and increases your energy. And who knows where that may lead.
Now to our last card, and this gives us a chance to show another version of the Bonzo Dogs set. This one is actually titled "William Tell", and shows the poor hapless hound with a golf ball on his nose being used as an unwilling tee.
I am not sure how many golf collectors out there know of this card, but if you are a dealer expect to be asked for it very soon.
The reason for this card is that it was today, in 1307, that William Tell lined up to shoot an apple off the head of his own son. However, there is some doubt that this occurred, because the story also appears in several earlier writings from right across Europe. And many legends are simply other versions of stories already told.
What we do know is that William Tell was Swiss, a mountaineer and a marksman, especially with a crossbow, and he assassinated someone in high office; apparently Tell was visiting and did not show the official respect by bowing to his hat which was stuck on a pole. Tell was arrested and sentenced to be executed but the official said that if he could shoot an apple off his own son`s head he would go free. However though Tell did this he was not freed, and was sentenced to imprisonment instead. This is possibly because he bravely said that if it had gone wrong his second arrow would have gone through the official. Anyway on the way to prison the boat capsized and Tell ran away; he was pursued by the official, who ended up dead. It also resulted in rebellion from the populace, who were firmly on the side of William Tell, and made him a hero in life, and in death with the legend.
Sadly he died in heroic circumstances, in an attempt to save a child drowning in the river. However there is no date of birth for him, or a firm date of death.
This week's Cards of the Day...
have commemorated Remembrance Sunday, which is always the second Sunday in the month. There is a War Memorial near you, wherever you are, so do make an attempt to go along, and stand, and remember those who died, who never grew old, or had the pleasures we take for granted. If you have a relative that fought in either of the World Wars they may not be alive to tell you of their tales, but if they are take some time to listen. If you do have written memories as part of your family story seek out your local museum and see if they would be interested in adding them to their collection.
We started with three clue cards, which were
Saturday, 5th November 2022
Now the clue here was the footballer, R. or Richard McFadden.
Read the statistics on the above card and then stop. For he may have been in the prime of life, scoring 17 goals in 1913-14, but in October 1916 he was dead, of wounds, aged just twenty-seven. In the short intervening time he had served with the 17th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, risen to Company Sergeant Major, and won the Military Medal, for which I have not been able to find a single note
I did find out that heroism ran in his blood, for he had previously saved one or two young boy(s) from drowning in the River Lea, for which he was given an award from the Mayor of Hackney, and he had also saved a man and a child from two separate house fires.
The 17th Battalion had another name, the Footballers Battalion, and it was specially formed in 1914 to only include footballers, staff, and supporters from right across the leagues. And Richard McFadden`s team, Clapton Orient, was one of the most successful at recruiting, supplying the largest contingent of men of any of the football clubs.
A spot of Cartophilic confusion here for in our reference works there are two Churchman sets called "Footballers", and both were issued in 1914.
The first set appeared in early 1914, and they showed portraits of footballers, but there was no set title on the cards; one had to be found so they could be recorded, so they went down as “Footballers” (A), the (A) standing for adopted title.
Then in November 1914 along comes this set, titled “Footballers”. Luckily the fronts on these were not just portraits, so we were able to tack on an extra bit and say this set is either “incidents in play with inset of player” or “coloured action portraits with black and white portrait inset”.
And how we know that this set came second is quite simply that we would have straight away called the untitled set something else other than “Footballers” all over again.
Some dealers do this already, using "Portraits" and "Incidents in Play".
More curious facts. Our “action” set is definitely recorded to have been printed by Mardon, Son and Hall, yet there is no record of the printer of the “portrait” set. Also, though most of the sets listed in our original RB.10 Churchman Reference Book do have months of issue, these being actually supplied by Churchman themselves from their own records, the "portrait" set is one of the few that does not. The telling thing is that these records were a combination, of Churchman`s own, and from Mardon, Son and Hall - which proves that the “portrait” set was almost certainly not printed by Mardon, Son and Hall. But who it was printed by remains a complete mystery.
Sunday, 6th November 2022
The clue here was the heart, which is not only the seat of remembrance, but that which is so often broken by War.The Queen of Hearts reminds us that whilst the men are out serving their country, back at home their ladies are wistfully waiting, hoping for news on one hand, but also hoping not to get that dreaded envelope that rather coldly announces they will never see their loved one again.
Now this really early card says it shows Miss F Russel. But I have looked and I still do not know who she is, so over to you... Any ideas? One theory suggests that she is Lillian Russell, beloved of Diamond Jim Brady, but I am not so sure about this. She was born in 1860, or maybe 1861, so in 1898 she would be thirty-eight, a bit older than this young lady looks. Also the Miss would be incorrect, as she was first married in 1885.
This set was almost certainly issued overseas, and the back says "Printed in Germany" for two reasons - firstly that it was printed there, by Meissner & Buch, who printed all manner of ephemera, including picture postcards - and secondly because it was printed around the time that goods had to state their country of origin. However this is a good thing, for it allows us to distinguish these cards from W/3C.2, which say "Printed in Saxony". And there is a third batch, W/3C.3, which have no country of origin mark.
There is a list of cards, useful as they are un-numbered. I will try to get that up here though it is over two pages which is not so easy to tackle.
By the time our second reference work to Wills issues was printed, there had been a discovery, and that was that the list was slightly wrong, the compiler had transposed three of the cards. This was corrected, so the King of Spades was now Miss Clements (who had been given as the Queen of Spades), the Queen of Spades was Miss Edith Hathaway (who had been given as the Jack of Spades), and the Jack of Spades was Miss Alberge (who had been given as the King of Spades).
Monday, 7th November 2022
Here we have the last clue, and it is the universal image of Remembrance Day, the flower which bloomed so freely on the fields right across Europe, covering the unknown graves of all those wasted lives.
If it had not been for the war, all the upheaval of the ground through the bombings and blowings up and trampings through the mud then it is unlikely that the poppy would have become its emblem. For the poppy likes nothing better than disturbed soil, and if the soil lies compact it can wait decades until something does break the surface and let it free.
Another reason that the poppy commemorates the loss of life is that it is a very ephemeral flower, its petals tumble to the ground with the slightest provocation, and seldom last but days. This card even says that "the poppy is at its best for a few hours only"
Now I have done a bit of research and though there is no month given for the issue of this set I have traced it to May 1939. The reason behind that is that the index of the Cigarette Card News gives it as a New Issue reported on page 155. Now I do not have that page, I have March 1939 which ends on page 128, and June 1939 which starts on page 177. It seems to me that 155 is closer to 177 than 128 so it stands to reason that it must have been in May 1939. If anyone does have a May 1939 then MAYbe they could have a look and confirm. A scan would also be of use, please!
Tuesday, 8th November 2022
This card shows the Royal Air Force Memorial and it comes from a set of medium sized cards (70 x 94 m/m) that were issued with the boy`s magazines "Triumph" and "Champion", each of which issued one card every week. This meant that at the end of twelve weeks you had a set of twenty-four card, but that you had been coerced to buy two magazines a week.
The dates of issue were 25.9.1926 to 11.12.96. There seems to be no list of the subjects and dates so if anyone can supply one or two we can get one going here. There do already seem to be some differences in the front and back captions - this will be shown below by the listing of two captions, the first being what is on the front.
2. 4-12-26 (Triumph) The Bank / The Bank of England
9. 2-10-26 (Triumph) The Cenotaph
16. 16-10-26 (Triumph) Air Force Memorial /The Royal Air Force Memorial
It is an attractive set, but there are still many questions. The most pressing of these is whether it was actually issued in this country, or whether it was only issued in the Australian and New Zealand editions of the magazine. We know it was definitely issued over there, and it appears in the Australian and New Zealand Indexes.
Wednesday, 9th November 2022
These sets, each of forty eight cards, were issued between 1938 and 1939, series one and two in 1938 and the rest in 1939. There does not seem to be a month of issue for this particular series, but the Cigarette Card News magazine gives the second series as August 1938 and the fourth series as June 1939, so it must be somewhere in between the two.
We know that four of the five series was printed by the Rotary Photographic Co., prolific issuers of picture postcards, but the second series seems not to have been credited to them for some reason. I will continue to investigate.
And there is a spot of added delight for fans of railwayana because the bottom of the description of this card mentions the London Midland and Scottish Railway.
This memorial is in the grounds of Edinburgh Castle, and it features on several cigarette cards. Its opening appears on Wills "The Reign of H M King George V" 29/50, whilst it can also be seen on quieter days on Wills "Modern British Sculpture" 19/40, where it is told that the architect was Sir Robert Lorimer A.R.A., A.R.S.A., F.R.I.B.A. And it appears on many picture postcards.
Thursday, 10th November 2022
Here we have the Naval Memorial at Portsmouth. It was built on Southsea Common to commemorate those who never came home from service with the Royal Navy during the First World War, almost fifty thousand men and women of all ages. Anyone who died at sea was lost forever, their bodies gone to the depths, or shattered into the air, so these could not have a grave for their physical remains on land.
The curious thing about this memorial is that there are two others, identical, one at Chatham and one at Plymouth. There is a reason for this, because when you joined the Royal Navy at that time you were given a kind of home port, of which there were three - Chatham, Plymouth, and Portsmouth.
New names were added after the Second World War, including many Commonwealth troops. This was done by building a memorial wall, which does not appear on our card.
This set was issued in two formats, varnished or unvarnished. The main difference is that the varnish seems to make the card turn yellowish to a greater or a lesser degree. However it is much less likely that you will find the unvarnished version, as early as the 1950s this was being retailed by the London Cigerette Card Company at a shilling a card and forty shillings a set, whereas the varnished ones were a penny ha`penny each and only seven shillings and sixpence a set.
Friday, 11th November 2022
This is a lovely set, one of my favourites, even though it is sepia - or maybe because of that, which lends a dignified air to these wonderful artworks. The cards measure 79 x 62 m/m, but they do suffer from not all being the same way up, which makes viewing them in an album rather a game of twist and turn.
This is part of the Guards Memorial, a panel, which was designed and sculpted by Gilbert Ledward F.R.B.S. who, the card adds, had designed several war memorials - at Abergavenny (which was unveiled in 1921 - it is actually for the Monmouthshire Regiment, and was paid for by public subscription from the people of the local area) - as well at Blackpool and at Harrogate (both 1923).
The Guards Memorial itself was actually built by Harold Chalton Bradshaw, and it was not unveiled until 1926. It was intended to commemorate the First Battle of Ypres, in 1914, where three of the Guards Brigades helped to halt the advance of the Germans, at great loss of life, but it came to stand for all battles that the Guards took part in.
Gilbert Ledward was also, later, entitled to add R.A. after his name, but not until 1937. He had been born in January 1888, and was already a famous sculptor before the outbreak of the First World War. He served in the Royal Garrison Artillery during the war, and became a war artist too. After that War he became professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art.
And after the Second World War he worked on the Combined Services Memorial in Westminster Abbey, as well as design the 1953 five shilling, or crown coin for the Coronation of Elizabeth II, which shows her mounted on her horse. His initials appear between the end of the bar and the back hoof. He died in 1960.
and there we must close for another week. Managed to get it done on time, and am very delighted, for this week has been rather troublesome with much interruption, and many things did not get done at all - one of which was the planned Armistice Day blog. However it is Remembrance Day on Sunday so I might get something done for that. I did tweet a card for Armistice Day, the Gallaher poppy, one of our Cards of the Day. Check out #Cartophily
It is not so dark tonight, there is a very pleasing glow from the moon. I ought to go to sleep but will probably think of things for some time. Sleep is not something I do much of. Which is lucky as overnight is pretty much the only time I get to type and do my work!
Anyway enough rambling, read, then go to sleep - or sleep and read when you awaken....
best wishes and happy collecting to you all...