This postcard is one of quite a few which I have collected over the years, it’s a photograph which has been turned into a postcard. As you can see it’s of a group of soldiers, including one in a kilt so they must be from a Scottish regiment, he must be their piper. Sadly there’s absolutely no mention in the card of who they are although maybe nowadays it would be possible to enlarge an area of it to identify their insignia.
Quite early on in the war the Scottish soldiers were told to stop wearing their kilts as they were causing them so many problems. The conditions were just not suitable as a kilt consists of 6 yards of wool and when it got wet as it inevitably did in the trenches, there was just no way of drying it. The wet material acted like sandpaper on the soldier’s skin as they moved and caused sores and infections. On top of all that the pleats were a perfect breeding ground for the lice which the soldiers were plagued with. The pipers were the only kilties around.
The postcard is addressed to:
Miss M. Willoughby,
“Binnie Cottage”
Causeywayside St
Tolcross
Glasgow
Scotland
The message says:
D.A.M. (presumably Miss Willoughby’s initials or a shortened version of an endearment)
Isn’t this a nice lot of chaps. Eh!
Not half. Expect to be leaving for France seven days or so hence. Will write later. Bert
The stamp which obviously has King George V’s head on it has been put on upside down. ( I thought that they could chuck you in prison for that!) Way back then every post office had its own postmark but I can’t make out this one, it’s somewhere St Mary, possibly Godford. Anyway the date is clear it was stamped on 18 November 1915.
Poor Bert. The chaps have obviously been at a training camp prior to being sent out to the trenches. I wonder how many of them survived it – if any.
What an interesting post. Never thought about the kilts that way. Can you imagine how heavy those things must have been dripping wet! Over here an upside down stamp meant I love you, if I’m remembering correctly. Yes it is sad to think of how many didn’t make it home. Wouldn’t you love to know if Bert did and if he and Miss Willoughby got married?
Peggy,
Maybe that was why he put the stamp on upside down then, I’ve never heard that before. I’d love to know what happened to them, it’s such a shame he didn’t add his surname – but why would he? – she knew who he was!
Very interesting.
I wonder if it’s Codford St Mary in Wiltshire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codford
where I see there’s a particular link with ANZAC soldiers.
I hope Bert made it home again.
Bless ’em all.
Valerie in NZ,
I’m absolutely sure it must have been Codford St Mary, you are a bright spark! I had just looked up Godford St Mary and got something entirely different and obviously not correct. Thanks for the link. Maybe he was an ANZAC soldier as so many went to Blighty at the start of the war to help out, and of course they would have had links with the folks back ‘home’ in Scotland or wherever, and pipers too.
Very interesting piece of history there. Chilling to think of how many men in that situation did not make it home. Thanks for sharing it.
TracyK,
I know that when I was a wee girl in the 1960s there were still old ladies around who had never married just because there weren’t enough men left for them, or they had never got over the death of a fiance. Really tragic.
Yes, putting a stamp on an envelope used to signify that the sender loved the sendee – is there such a word?
What a pity you don’t have Bert’s surname. You might have been able to find out more about him.
Evee,
I know, people almost never put their surname on postcards. I’m always left wondering what happened to Fred or Alf.