Newsletter - 2026-10-03

Greetings, dear readers, and welcome to another edition of our weekly newsletter, albeit one written rather hastily at the end of what proved to be an exceptionally hectic week. 

march 82

Now I will start this edition with an apology, for last week I waxed lyrical over the fact that the first card to be shown on the cover of a Cartophilic Society magazine was the one we featured last week, namely Volume 10, No.119, dated May/June 1983, on which the card was selected from Duke`s "Stars of the Stage" (1896). 

Since then one of our readers has very kindly sent in a scan of this cover, which was issued earlier, in March 1982, and was Volume 10, No.108 and therefore currently steals the honour of being the first card ever to appear on the cover of any of our magazines. 

However last week`s write up only needs a little tweaking, for it is still the first cover where a large version of a card takes pride of place, rather than, as here, much reduced in size and shown beneath the contents. And perhaps this was the spark that caused the full cover card ... unless anyone can find any earlier copies of our magazine with cards on them. And that`s your challenge for the forthcoming week.

So without further ado, let us chat about this card, which is W.D. & H.O Wills` "Recruiting Posters", issued in March 1915.

Despite its early date of issue, this set waits right until RB.14 – "The Cigarette Card Issues of W.D. & H.O. Wills Parts I and II (revised) and Part III" - to make an appearance, and that booklet was not published until 1949. Its entry is worth waiting for though, as it is revealed that there are actually two versions, one issued in England and one in Australia, which is much more complex as you can find each card with two different backs.

The entry for the home issue is described as : 

  • 92. RECRUITING POSTERS. Unnumbered. Fronts printed by letterpress in colour. Issued 1914-15. ... W92

         HOME ISSUE : - 

              A.  Series of 12. Backs in grey, with details of publisher of poster. First words of poster : - 
  1. Another Call
  2. Come Along Boys !
  3. "Fall In"
  4. Follow me !
  5. He did his duty ...
  6. Line up, Boys !
  7. Rally Round the Flag
  8. Remember Belgium
  9. There is still a Place ...
  10. The "Scrap of Paper"
  11. Think !
  12. What in the end ...

On which note we must say that neither the cards of the home issue nor the Australian one are actually numbered, this was done purely for and in the reference book,.something which has led to the erroneous belief that our card was replaced by "Halt ! Who Goes There ?" which appears in the same reference book as number five of the listing of the Australian version. More than that, the posters differ on some cards, and our card is one of those not featured on the Australian version.  In fact we have no idea of which poster replaced ours, and we probably never will

Wills Recruiting Posters uk

Our poster-card, which is shown here not only enlarged, but in full colour shows Lord Roberts, or more correctly Field Marshall Lord Roberts, familiarly known as "Bobs", but with the full title of Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts V.C., K.G., K.P., G.C.B., O.M., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., V.D., P.C., F.R.S.G.S. 

In actual fact his Victoria Cross, the first medal to be represented in his title by initial letters, appears in this image standing up against the frame in which is his portrait - it does look rather like a cigarette card, so I am certain you will spot it. 

It appears that Wills were rather enamoured with him, because he not only appears in another of their sets, "Vanity Fair" which we featured as our Card of the Day for the 11th of May, 2025, his portrait was also used on the packets of their `United Service` brand, and also featured on the reverses of some of their series of cards, including “Flag Girls of all Nations”, issued in 1910, which we featured as our Card of the Day for the 7th of June 2022. 

Now there is something missing from the front of this card when compared to the original poster, for along the left hand side of the latter, in capital letters, it reads "Published by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, London - Poster No.20"  and on the right hand side it continues with "Printed by Johnson, Riddle & Co., London. S.E.". However if you look at the reverse of the card much of that forms the wording, save the fact that it is poster number twenty.

We also know that there was a Welsh language edition, on which the wording was "Gwnaeth ef ei ddyledswydd A wnech CHWI" - just not why, as Lord Roberts had Irish blood and not Welsh. 

The Parliamentary Recruiting Committee is easier to find. This was a group of thirty people who were under the direct supervision of the War Office, recruited once it was obvious that not enough men were signing up voluntarily to go to war. Their first idea was to give away small posters in the street, but when this was not met with a large enough response, they started to make larger posters and display them in prominent places. This had a twofold effect, firstly the posters could not be screwed up and thrown away, but secondly, if a man was out with his girl or his wife, maybe even his children, he might be shamed into joining up if they commented. Another scheme was to produce posters for rallies, at which many men could sign up all at once, and on the spot, without the thinking time, or the having to go and find somewhere locally to do so.

You can see the development of the poster on these twelve cards. The ones which were earliest were just lettering, no pictures, and these were enlarged versions of those small flyers that had been pressed into the hand of any man that walked past. As time went by they grew much more elaborate, and used other tactics, including the mention of atrocities, in an attempt to rouse the anger and desire to avenge. 

Eventually the poster campaign was subtly changed, after a bit of a backlash, and also due to the arrival of conscription in 1916. Once there was no, or little escape, they concentrated on encouraging women to join up and replace the men, and on what would later be called "The Home Front", ways you could help the war effort, by not wasting food or materials, and by buying government stock, known as War Bonds.

As for the portrait , which is not credited on either the poster or the card, it is actually borrowed from a photograph, by Alexander Bassano, who also took another famous recruiting image, that of Earl Kitchener, for "Britain Needs You". Strangely that image, probably the most stirring of all, was not included in this set, and yet it was first used in 1914, the same year that the original poster of our card was first pasted up on a wall; and the same year that Lord Roberts died, of pneumonia, whilst visiting British troops on the Western Front in France. He was eighty-two years old. 

By the time of our original World Tobacco Issues Index, the two versions were forever parted. The Home issue was recorded in section two of the Wills` listing, under sub section 2.A, for "Issues 1902 - 1917", and appears as simply : 

  • RECRUITING POSTERS. Sm. Unnd. (12) See W/92.A ... W62-99

The text in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index remains the same, but the code is changed, to W675-132.

We must also add that the Home issue was reprinted in 1987/88 by Victoria Gallery.

Website News : 

I have had very little time to work on indexing the back issues, but I did one, that for the 17th of June 2022. 

Sanitarium Surf Sports

It started with a card that needed to be changed, because the one that was there, Peter Jackson`s "Coastwise" was already in the gallery, but it was a set that didn`t really fit the bill for #InternationalSurfingDay, being just a generic card of Newquay, which is proving a popular venue for the sport. Now we have this card - a triple whammy of correctness, for it shows a proper surfer, an International champion, and an Australian. But is it really true that America issued the first card with "Surf" in the title, with Kinney`s "Surf Beauties" in 1911 ? Do please let me know.

The cards of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday all stayed, though the latter is rather yellow, a bit of a trait of the machine I used to use at that time. Thursday`s is now a Liebig and not another Smith`s "Battlefields", though it does still show the battlefield of Bannockburn. And Friday`s stayed too, though I`m still none the wiser about Werbe Organisation Schwab of Mulheim Ruhr, Germany, not even whether they were trade or tobacco. Anyway all of these will be in the index by the end of tomorrow. 

As for newsletters past which were published around this week, they are as follows : 

And if you have any updates, comments, or suggestions for any of these, do please let us know, by emailing webmaster@card-world.co.uk

This Week`s Events...

Quite a good week for touring round our fairs so pack your flask and sandwiches and hit the road. The fun begins with - 

 

Saturday the 3rd of October - 

  • Lincolnshire, from 10.30 a.m., at Kirton Leisure, 31a Willington Road, Kirton, Boston PE21 1EP. 

Sunday the 4th of October - 

 

  • Winchester & Solent. from 1.00 p.m. until 4.00 p.m., at Botley Market Hall, High Street, Botley, near Southampton SO30 2EA. Free admission to all collectors to all our events. And here`s a date for your diary, our last All Day Fair of 2026 will be on Sunday November 1st

Monday the 5th of October

  • Northants. from 6 p.m. until approximately 9 p.m., at Weston Favell Parish Hall, on Booth Lane South, Northampton, NN3 3EP.  

 

Thursday the 9th of October : 

  • Cotswolds - from 5 p.m. at Uckington Village Hall, The Green, Tewkesbury Road, Uckington, Cheltenham GL51 9SR. Free admission to all collectors

 

Sunday the 11th of October : 

  • Hants & Surrey - their last All Day Quarterly Fair of 2026 - from 10 am until 4 pm. at Normandy Village Hall, Manor Fruit Farm, Glaziers Lane, Normandy, GU3 2DD. Free entry to all collectors