During the twentieth century, the British monarchy underwent prolonged periods of continuity and stability, punctuated by instances of uncertainty and transformation. From the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, when it was said that the sun never set on the British Empire, through the vicissitudes of the First World War which necessitated a name change from Saxe-Coburg to Windsor; from the calm impression of devotion to duty exuded by George V, George VII and Elizabeth II to the trauma of the abdication of Edward VIII, the modern royal family and their predecessors through the centuries have featured regularly on card issues.
These events, and the lives of the monarchs who came before them, were featured in many card sets. Wills issued Kings and Queens in 1902 to coincide with the coronation of Edward VI. There was also a flurry of issues around the mid-1930s, with the Silver Jubilee of George V in 1935 and the accession of King George VI in late 1936 being celebrated in a number of sets which emphasised the family aspect of the new monarch.
One particularly fine issue which reflected the range of the role of the monarch in the twentieth century was that issued by Wills’ in 1935 to mark the silver jubilee of George V. Titled The Reign of King George V, the set begins with his proclamation as king in 1910, his coronation the following year and his visit to India in December 1911 to be acclaimed as Emperor. His role as the head of the nation’s armed forces was depicted by a card showing him at the Western Front in 1914, and attending the memorial service to Lord Kitchener in 1916. The memorialisation of the war was shown in the unveiling of the memorial to Nurse Edith Cavell, shot by a German firing squad in 1915 following accusations of spying, and of the first Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph in Whitehall in 1920. One final card on this theme depicts his visit to Boulogne in 1922 on a pilgrimage to the graves of British soldiers. Where the king led, many of his subjects followed, with thousands of families visiting the final resting places of their sons, via organisations such as the St Barnabas Society. Michelin guides were issued and package tours organised by Thomas Cook.
As a young man, George V had witnessed the retreat from public life of his grandmother, Queen Victoria, following the death of her beloved Prince Albert, and the subsequent unpopularity of the monarchy as an institution. He had also keenly noted the success of the great public occasions of her Golden and Diamond Jubilees, and the greater openness of his father, King Edward VII. He was therefore determined that for the monarchy to survive and flourish in the new century, it had to play a high-profile role in national life. Therefore a great number of cards in the set reflect this broadening of the role of the monarchy throughout the 1920s and ’30s. Great sporting occasions are shown, with his three sons attending the Derby in 1923, the king himself being presented to the England Rugby team at Twickenham in 1923 and the England Cricket team at Lord’s in 1934. As well as these two sports, with their public school and aristocratic connotations, he is also shown attending the FA Cup Final of 1923.
His acknowledgement of British technological achievements is shown at the attendance of the Railway Centenary Exhibition of 1925, the opening of the Lambeth Bridge in 1932 and the Mersey Tunnel in 1934. Cards are included depicting the king at public occasions in all nations of the United Kingdom and throughout the then British Empire.
Therefore, the set gives us a flavour not just of the events of his reign, but how Wills, in collaboration with the Royal Family’s advisers, wished to portray the range and nature of royal engagements and the stability of the continuity of the British monarchy at a time when countries across Europe were coming under the threat of totalitarian ideologies.
The coronation of King George VI in 1937 coincided with the apogee of the issuing of trade cards and this was reflected in the high number of sets devoted to the occasion. A further impetus to highlighting the significance of the event was the difficulties the royal family and the rest of the British establishment had encountered during the abdication crisis which had consumed much of 1936.
Issues included an individual large card produced by Players in 1937, Bridgewater’s Coronation Series 1937, Phillips’ Coronation of Their Majesties 1937, The Kings Coronation from Churchman, and Coronation by Wix. All these can be bought for modest prices, due to the large amount issued. Anstie produced a sectional series of 10 cards of Windsor Castle 1937, which put together made an attractive picture of the royal residence. Confectioners Mars produced Ceremonies of the Coronation 1937. Player’s set of The Coronation of HM King George VI and HM Queen Elizabeth was issued in 1937 with an accompanying large illustrated album, and the emphasis here was on the ceremonial dress to be worn by many participants in the coronation. Kensitas’ Coronation series of the same year included cards of many members of the royal family, in addition to personalities associated with the event, such as Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury. Ogden’s contribution to the commemoration of the occasion was a set of 50 sectional cards titled Coronation Procession, each one showing a different part of the horses, guards and carriages which would form the procession.
Sets of trade cards were also issued in 1953 to mark the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and in 1977, the year of her Silver Jubilee. These included the extra-large set of 60 Queen and People by Prescott Pickup. Also in 1977 Carreras issued Kings and Queen of England with 50 in the set, and Allman’s Coronation Series 1953, with the 50 in the set costing £50.
As well as the royal family, many intrepid explorers appeared on cards and were portrayed as British individuals with characteristics of grit, determination and a thrusting, outward-looking spirit. Fry’s With Captain Scott at the South Pole, a 25 card set issued in 1913, provides a moving account of the ill-fated attempt of Scott and his men to be the first to reach the South Pole. We see light-hearted snapshots, such as the men playing football on the ice. This is contrasted with another card featuring a rather forlorn-looking group of a sledging party returning after ten weeks’ absence. One card moving in its simplicity is the memorial cairn erected to Captain Oates, with a cross on the top. The cross bears the inscription, ‘Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman, Captain L. E. G. Oates, of the Inniskilling Dragoons. In March 1912, returning from the Pole, he walked willingly to his death in a blizzard, to try and save his comrades, beset by hardships.’ This followed his sacrifice in going out into a minus 40 degree blizzard to his certain death as a team of five struggled to make it back to base camp having reached the South Pole. Weakened by hunger and exhaustion, and knowing that he was slowing his companions down due to frostbite, Oates allegedly told Scott, ‘I am going outside and may be some time.’
F. & J. Smith’s Famous Explorers set of 50 featured intrepid pioneers from around the globe. Perhaps no British name resonates more in terms of exploration than Sir Walter Raleigh. Significantly, in terms of cigarette card history, he was also the man responsible for bringing tobacco to England from Virginia in 1586. We learn from the card that:
This illustrious English courtier, explorer and historian was born in Devonshire, 1552. He served in the Huguenot Army (1569) and in the English Army in Ireland (1580). In 1584 he obtained a Royal Charter for the colonisation of part of North American, which he named Virginia. He explored the Orinoco (where, to quote his own words, ‘he passed the most beautiful country that ever his eyes beheld’) in 1595.
Pattreiouex’s Builders of the British Empire, was issued in 1929, at a time when Britain still saw itself as the centre of an international community of trade, culture and religion. The set of 50 is a mix of monarchs, admirals, generals, explorers and politicians. One of these is Yorkshireman Captain James Cook, who made the first recorded European contact with the eastern coast of Australia and Hawaii and produced detailed maps of New Zealand and Newfoundland. The card shows Cook’s death at the hands of a Hawaiian native and tells us:
Cook, a labourer’s son, started life on a collier. He joined the Navy, and later commanded a ship under Wolfe. He led an astronomical expedition to the Pacific, when he befriended the natives and charted the coasts of New Zealand. He second voyage proved that an Antarctic continent existed, although uninhabitable, and also that with care sailors kept free from scurvy. He was killed by natives on an attempt to find a passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
Stephen Mitchell & Son of Glasgow brought out an issue of Famous Scots in 1933. Each card has a coloured portrait of its subject, with a shaded line drawing of an event from their life. The subjects range in role and epoch from the eleventh century King Macbeth, through to J.M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan. Card number 43 features the intrepid African explorer and missionary David Livingstone. We are told that:
Early in life Livingstone determined to become a missionary, and later expressed his intention ‘to open up Africa or perish’; he did both. He sailed for Africa in 1840, and laboured for several years in Bechuanaland, but owing to the opposition of the Boers journeyed North and discovered Lake Ngani and the Victoria Falls. After a visit home he returned in 1858 on another expedition, and discovered Lakes Shirwa and Nyasa. In 1866 he explored the African water-shed in search of the sources of the Nile, but discovered instead the headwaters of the Congo. He was found by Stanley at Ujiji, but continued his work and died at Ilala in 1873.
This appealing and informative set has a catalogue value of £100, but a reprinted issue from 1999 can be found for around £10. In 1935 Ardath issued a set of 25 with the same title, which currently sells for around £40.
Although it may seem strange to a twenty-first century audience, for whom there is a widespread cynicism and dislike of many leading politicians, political figures featured fairly frequently on card issues. Murray issued a set of 50 Prominent Politicians in 1909, the year of the People’s Budget, with Welfare issuing a set of 22 with the same title in 1911. In May 1929 Carreras brought out a set of 50 Notable M.P.s, shown in caricature form and drawn by Tom Cottrell. They showed MPs across the political spectrum, including Winston Churchill, Stanley Baldwin, George Lansbury, Neville Chamberlain and James Maxton. A very good to excellent set currently retails at between £40 and £70. Lansbury was leader of the Labour Party between 1932 and 1935 whose campaigns for social justice were underpinned by his devout Christian beliefs. He founded the Daily Herald newspaper, which became The Sun in 1964, and was a staunch pacifist throughout the First World War. He became Labour leader after the remarkable 1931 General Election result, when the party was reduced to a rump of 52 MPs, and its existing leader, Arthur Henderson, was defeated in his seat of Burnley. Lansbury spent the last years of his life travelling through the United States and Europe, trying in vain to bring about peace and disarmament.
Lansbury was also featured in Godfrey Phillip’s issue of In the Public Eye in 1935, a wide-ranging collection which included Fred Perry, Jack Hobbs, Gracie Fields and Winston Churchill. Each card had a question about the character on the front, the answer to which could be found on another card. Thus, on Lansbury’s card we are asked, ‘Has He Opposed the Labour Party?’ and are advised to consult card 17, that featuring the sporting polymath Lord Lonsdale. The answer given is, ‘No. He fought in 1912 as Independent but solely to test opinion on Women’s Suffrage.’
Another politician was featured in an unusual 1936 Godfrey Phillips series. Titled Famous Minors, the 50 cards depict men and women who achieved fame before they were 21. They include Napoleon, George Washington, Isaac Newton, Marco Polo, Alexander the Great and W.G. Grace. One individual who was already a leading figure in public life as a young man was William Pitt the Younger. The potted biography seems to have been written by a fan of his, and informs us that:
‘The Boy Prime Minister’ as some people call him, was an M.P. at the age of 21. In early youth he showed remarkable talent; he was a classical scholar at 10, and at 13 composed a tragedy. Young Pitt made no secret of his intention ‘to speak in the House of Commons like his father.’ He was no subservient politician, prepared only to act as a mouthpiece; he was incorruptible, and bravely took upon himself the task of reorganising a country exhausted by the strain of war. Through the wisdom and skill of this youth, Britain recovered and expanded, and Pitt died one of our greatest statesmen.
One youth who was not as fortunate as Pitt in scaling the heights of government was Lambert Simnel. As part of a Yorkist plot against Henry VII, he posed as one of Edward IV’s ‘murdered sons’, the tragic ‘Princes in the Tower’, and then pretended to be the Earl of Warwick. The plot ended with the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487 where ‘more than 2,000 lives were wasted in a fierce struggle’. Due to his youth, Simnel was pardoned by Henry VII and put to work as a spit-turner in the royal kitchens, and later worked as a falconer. The card wryly states, ‘To serve a Yorkist plot, Lambert Simnel posed as a prince – to serve a king he worked in the royal kitchen.’
In a 2002 BBC Television series, Winston Churchill was voted as the greatest ever Britain. One of the early events in his career was featured in a Carreras set of 1926, Famous Escapes. In an escapade which first brought him to the attention of the British public, his escape from a Boer prison in Pretoria in 1899 was recorded thus:
His first attempt to escape with his friend, Captain Haldane, failed, but on the next day, Mr Churchill managed to scale the wall of the prison alone, and to get clear away. He boarded two trains, in the second of which he had to lie buried under some sacks of wool for two-and-a-half days. While hidden there, the train was searched but Mr. Churchill was undiscovered and eventually reached Natal in safety.
A different take on well-known individuals was issued by Sarony with 4 sets of 25 cards each of Celebrities and their Autographs in 1923-4. A series of photogravure pictures, many taken from the National Portrait Gallery, the set featured a range of people famous in politics, exploration, the arts, religion and the military. One of a handful of women to be featured was north-eastern heroine Grace Darling. Born at Bamburgh, Northumberland, in 1815, Darling was the daughter of a lighthouse keeper on Longstone, one of the Faroe Islands. On 7 September 1838, she went out into a treacherous storm with her father on a small rowing boat to a distance of over a mile to save the survivors of the steamboat Forfarshire. Darling kept the boat steady in rough seas while her father assisted survivors to safety. Her fame for this act spread across the nation. Darling and her father were awarded the Silver Medal for bravery from the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck (later the RNLI) and over £700 was raised in subscriptions and donations, including a £50 gift from Queen Victoria. Sadly, Darling was to die of tuberculosis at the young age of 26, in October 1842.
As well as domestic celebrities, sets were also issued to commemorate the lives of prominent people from overseas. One such issue was Napoleon, from Players in 1915. The timing is significant as, instead of choosing to commemorate the centenary of the French defeat at Waterloo, as might have been expected, the company chose to celebrate the career of a former leader of one of Britain’s Great War allies. However, some of his defeats against the Russians were featured.
Godfrey Phillips put out an imaginative representation of historic notables, with Busts of Famous People in 1907, a full set of which is hard to come across, and would cost in the region of £400. Each card had a bust of an eminent figure, with a perforated edge which meant the card could be displayed upright. Of William Wilberforce, who was born in Hull and served as MP for Yorkshire while campaigning as a prominent slavery abolitionist, we learn that he was:
The anti-slavery philanthropist, who devoted all his time and energy to the abolition of the slave trade, which from early life he condemned. He was elected a member of Parliament at the age of 21, and in 1780 he proposed the abolition of the slave trade, which met with powerful opposition, but eight years later the measure was passed. He then agitated for the total abolition of slavery itself, and although ill-health prevented him from taking further active measures, he lived to hear of the second reading of the Abolition Bill. He died in 1833, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where there is a statue to his memory.
Today, Wilberforce’s birthplace on the old High Street in Kingston-upon-Hull, is a museum devoted to his memory. Wilberforce’s humanitarian concerns were driven by his evangelical Christian faith, a factor from which he drew immense strength.
Ogden’s Leaders of Men series of 1924 offered a broad mix across the 50 cards, including leaders from across the world, such as Homer, Alexander the Great and Peter the Great. Amongst religious leaders included in the set were the Scottish Protestant reformer John Knox, William Penn, the Quaker founder of the state of Pennsylvania, and Mahomet, the founder of the Muslim religion. Pictorial representations of him are generally discouraged, and he would almost certainly not be included in any card set today. Another religious leader featured was John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement. Born in Epworth rectory, Lincolnshire, in 1703, Wesley travelled 5,000 miles a year to spread his method of Christian living, preaching fifteen sermons a week.
Pictures of attractive females had long been a staple subject for card issues, with the word ‘Beauty’ in the title. Often these cards were issued with no biographical information about the subject, but often featured contemporary actresses and singers. However, in 1937 Player issued a fine set of 25 Famous Beauties featuring drawings by A.K. MacDonald. These cards were of characters from history, stretching back to classical antiquity in the cases of Helen of Troy, the Queen of Sheba and Cleopatra. We are taken through the centuries with Joan of Arc, Anne Boleyn, Isabella de Bourbon and Nell Gwyn, the set concluding with Marguerite, Countess of Blessington, who caused scandal in the early Victorian era through her ‘somewhat equivocal position’ caused by her relationship with the Count D’Orsay which had begun when she was still married to the Earl of Blessington.
The set can be bought for around £45, and card number 14 depicts Louise de la Vallière, the French courtesan whose rise to prominence and retreat from the intrigues of the court of Louis XIV is well laid out:
Beautiful, vivacious and accomplished, Louise de la Vallière was appointed maid of honour to Henrietta of England at the Court of Fontainebleau. Here she soon attracted the facile affection of the young King Louis XIV, and Louise returned his love with a sincere devotion. But the period of her happiness was shortlived; Court scandals and the fickleness of her royal lover drove her to consult Bossuet, her spiritual adviser. At length, in 1674, she was permitted to enter a convent, and a year later she took the final vows. Renouncing her title of Duchess, she became simple ‘Sister Louise.’ She spent her remaining years in deeds of charity, beloved by all for her sweet and gentle spirit.
One female who did a great deal to advance the professionalisation of nursing and broaden the opportunities for women of middle-class status in the public, as opposed to the domestic sphere was Florence Nightingale. She is featured in many card sets, including Carreras’ 1935 issue of 50 cards of Celebrities of British History. The card’s copywriter was clearly a huge admirer of hers:
In Victorian England the gently-nurtured Miss Nightingale’s desire to tend the sick was considered eccentric, and she had to study nursing abroad. Her great opportunity came in the Crimean war, when the military medical services collapsed, and mortality was appalling. She burst the red-tape bonds asunder and created order out of chaos. She even aroused the War Office. No wonder the wounded soldiers at Scutari kissed her shadow as the Lady of the Lamp passed through their midst. Given the O.M. when dying, she murmured ‘Too kind.’
One set that sought to bring to the collector’s attention the lives of ordinary people was Churchman’s In Town Tonight series. The characters chosen for the cards were those who had appeared on the eponymous BBC radio show. The set introduces us to Tom Beasley, a swordsmith, who had worked in that trade from the age of 8 to 75, and who had made swords for five monarchs and Lord Kitchener. Another was a rat catcher, William Dalton, who reveals that his record haul was 1,600 in one night in Romford. For those with a love of books, of interest is Miss Christina Foyle, of the famous London book shop. We learn that:
The younger daughter of Mr W. A. Foyle, Miss Christian Foyle is a partner in the famous firm of W. & G. Foyle, Ltd., the largest second-hand booksellers in the world. All her life she has lived among three million books and in order to keep up their stock, Miss Foyle goes to every country in Europe and the Near East to buy books. She organises the very successful Foyle’s Literary Luncheons, which started with two hundred people and now boast an attendance of fifteen hundred or more. Practically every celebrity has spoken there, and on every possible subject. Miss Foyle’s hobbies are yachting, reading and skating.
The set of 50 cards points towards a broadening interest in the lives of people across society, and is overall a charming set of characters who will rightly be recorded for posterity by Churchman’s. It can be bought for around £20.
Individuals who are still household names today, as well as those whose fame was fleeting, have filled many hundreds of sets of cards, and a collection based on them would form a broad knowledge base of the achievements of western civilisation. However, it should be borne in mind that trade cards, particularly of the first half of the twentieth century, reflected a view of the world coloured by Britain’s self-identity of imperial greatness, and the achievements of individuals through British history were projected with that identity in mind. Therefore vintage and antique cards give us an insight into the cultural mentalities that prevailed over the course of the past 120 years, and as well as being items of charm in themselves, provide the historian with another source of information to help them understand the attitudes prevalent in the recent past.