Postcards

Mrs Brown’s postcards

Mrs Brown recently brought in some postcards that have been in her family since the First World War.

These embroidered postcards are known as ‘silks’. This is because they were sown by hand onto a silk mesh. They were made by French and Belgian women during the First World War. Many of these women were refugees trying to make a living away from their homes.

The postcards proved very popular with British and American soldiers. As a result, many of the cards have patriotic pictures of British, French and American flags. It is estimated that up to 10 million handmade cards were produced during the First World War.

Many of these  cards had an embroidered flap to make a pocket. In this section there was a smaller greeting card.These contained messages like ‘To my dear mother’ or ‘from a loving son’.

So why don’t these postcards have stamps on?
Postcards were sent home by soldiers using a postal service run by the army. Postcards were put into pouches or put in envelopes in letters. It was free for the soldiers to do this. Why do you think this was?

For the full gallery of postcards click here.