ITEM: Field Service Post Card WW1
ORIGIN: England
PERIOD: WW1
Cardboard postcard with black offset printed ink both sides, written on with pencil, measuring 140x85mm, dated 20.09.1915.
Sent from the front by Number 1601 Eric Grenfill McDougall, who embarked for overseas service on 12.1.14 & returned to Australia five years five months later (RTA) 4.6.1919, addressed to Miss Elsie May Paynter, of Sydney.
Due to censorship issues with any mail sent by troops at the front, the Field Service Post Cards were deliberately bland and impersonal in the extreme.
The Obverse side header reads: ‘NOTHING is to be written on this side except the date and signature of the sender. Sentences not required may be erased. If anything else is added the post card will be destroyed.’
The cards had the advantage for the sender of being able to complete them in the minimum time and under adverse conditions.
They also had the advantage for the censor of being quick to process.