We Smoke Your Health and Wish You Well: WW2 Cigarette Postcards

Overseas League Tobacco Fund Cigarette Postcard 1943

To our modern eyes, supporting the provision of free cigarettes for young men and women would be at best, irresponsible and at worst, immoral.

In the context of both the First and Second World Wars, it was regarded not just as an act of charity but a patriotic duty. A delivery of cigarettes from home brought comfort to the weary soldier on the front line and boosted morale.

The Overseas Club inaugurated its famous Tobacco Fund during the First World War. Its success was legendary: in addition to tobacco for the troops, it donated 350 aircraft to the Royal Flying Corps and paid for a new hospital for wounded airmen.¹

During the Second World War, for the price of just a shilling, the Tobacco Fund, 'with the co-operation of the War Office and the Customs Authorities' was able to send 'duty and carriage-free' a parcel of 50 cigarettes to units at the Front,² hospitals or even ships at sea. Included in each package was a postcard, with the donor's address on one side and a blank space for the recipient's message, on the other. 



My father (for most of his life a non-smoker) was a keen donor to the Overseas League Tobacco Fund. He desperately wanted to join up, having been in the OTC (Officer Training Corps) at university but his requests were always firmly denied. Much to his intense frustration, they decided he was more useful in India. I think the Tobacco Fund was a small but poignant part of 'doing his bit' as he appears to have kept every single reply. As a result, I am fortunate to have 43 of these very special 'reply postcards'. 

Cigarette Postcard 1945

Note the message at the bottom: 'Important: at the request of the authorities' - in capitals - 'Do not disclose any particulars of your unit'. This stricture wasn't always followed particularly closely, as can be seen in the cards below.

   

Cigarette Postcard 1945

This postcard, dated 7th July 1945, was sent by Lalitha Hensman, a Welfare Officer with the Indian Red Cross at South East Asia Command. Having obviously remarked on the address of the donor, she kindly takes care to point out that the 'recipients were Indian soldiers'. 

  

Cigarette Postcard 1944

My third and final postcard was sent in August 1944. Simple and to the point, it really sums up the whole collection: 

These cigarettes were issued to Allied Ex Prisoners of War who escaped through our lines. They were more than acceptable, and we wish to express our thanks to you.

Yours

AG Kennard [?]

NZEF*

* New Zealand Expeditionary Force

Footnotes
1/ 'Founding Father' By Alex May. 'Overseas: Journal of the Royal Overseas League' Issue 3 3rd September 2010 p.13  
2/ 'Tobacco for the Troops' The Spectator Magazine 12th November 1939 from the Spectator Archive

© Emmy Eustace

Not to be Used for any Other Purpose: Recycling the Royal Navy

"OHMS: On His Majesty's Service"
1905-1906

If a genealogist is allowed to have one, my favourite ancestor has to be my Great Uncle John Bridges Eustace, known to the family as Jack. He kept everything (almost) and his fascinating archive will undoubtedly feature heavily in this blog.

By way of example, here are a few envelopes!

Having originally been designed to hold Royal Naval Service Certificates and associated service documents (gunnery and torpedo history sheets etc) the 'Envelopes for Parchment Certificates and History Sheets' were made of durable, thick paper. Well over a hundred years later, they are still in fairly good condition.

Waste is and was frowned upon in the Navy, whether it be ammunition or paper and Jack, regardless of the strictures on the front, happily re-used all types of envelopes for his private paperwork as seen below:

HMS c1901

"Not to be used for any other purpose"

HMS Alert c1901 

Wax seal of the Commander-in-Chief North America and West Indies from the
back of above envelope addressed to the Commander of HMS Alert,
JB Eustace 

"Letter to HBM Minister at Caracas"

The Wicklow Militia 1884

Wicklow Militia c1884

This glorious picture of the band is from the early days of my grandfather Alexander Henry Eustace's long and eventful military career. 








Given the choice between officer training in the rarefied atmosphere of Sandhurst or entering the army via the militia, Alec gratefully chose the latter. Accordingly, in 1883 he was posted adjutant to the 7th Brigade Northern Irish Division Royal Artillery - aka the Wicklow Militia.

Later in life, he described how, marching through Wicklow Town on the way to the annual camp held on the Murragh (an open area on the coast where they fired a cannon out to sea), the wives and sweethearts would run along side them crying and sobbing "as if they were really going to war...smuggling liquor into the ranks as they marched"!

Wicklow Militia c1884

Roger and Anna Draper

In 1915, as the Colonel's wife, my Great Grandmother Monica Eustace had the sad duty of visiting the newly widowed Anna Lowell Draper. A year later, Anna sent Monica the following two photographs:

Captain Roger Francis Draper 1915

The first is a picture of Anna's late husband, Captain Roger Francis Draper (1890-1915) of the 6th Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment. Written on the back (in Anna's handwriting) is: 

RFD at Godalming June 1915

Anna Lowell Gardiner married Roger Francis Draper on 16th December 1914, in the Private Chapel of London House, Westminster St James in London, just before he left for the front. 

He was killed in action at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli on 22nd August 1915 and his death announced in the Boston Evening Transcript on 13th September 1915.

Captain Draper is remembered on the Helles Memorial, Gallipoli, the War Memorial in Adel in Leeds and the Christchurch Cathedral Roll of Honour in Oxford. 

Anna Lowell Draper 1916

The second photograph was taken by Frizell of Boston, 
probably Fred A Frizell of Boston and Dorchester (as per the 1909 edition of the Boston Blue Book).

It is dated January 1916 and shows Anna holding her baby, Roger Francis Draper, who was born at 322 Beacon St, Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 7th November 1915. 

Anna Lowell Gardiner was an American, the daughter of Robert H Gardiner, a Lawyer and Alice (nee Bange). She was born in Newton, Massachusetts, USA on 9th September 1890.  

It appears that Anna married Henry Richardson Shepley in 1919 but sadly, if online sources are to be believed (an Ancestry tree) little Roger didn't live long, dying aged only 13 in 1928.

****Additional Information****
I have just found two more photographs of Roger Francis Draper, which can be seen on 
descentfromadam.wordpress.com 




Sources:

FamilySearch: 

"Massachusetts, Births, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FXC6-VYK : accessed 04 Jun 2014), Roger Francis Draper, 07 Nov 1915; citing Boston, Massachusetts, p 328, Massachusetts Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 2409903 

"Massachusetts, Births, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FX4M-32X : accessed 04 Jun 2014), Anna Lowell Gardner, 09 Sep 1890; citing Newton, Massachusetts, P 260, Massachusetts Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 1428244  

US genealogical information courtesy of fellow genealogist Liz Loveland of Metro Boston, Massachusetts via Twitter on @lizl_genealogy 
Further contact details on http://adventuresingenealogy.wordpress.com/