Having looked at Christmas last month, I couldn’t leave New Year out. And it has the same theme of people away at the time and in not so pleasant surroundings. We looked at a card from the Second World War and this time it’s from the First or Great War. It all started well before 1914 and it was only the final spark in the summer of 1914 that lit the heaps of gunpowder that were the immense international treaty blocs. But let’s take 1914 as a starting point.
After the shooting of Archduke Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Sarajevo, Bosnia, in June 1914, by a (supposedly) Serbian assassin, the Austrians declared war on Serbia. As allies of Serbia, the Russian Empire declared war on the Austrians in July and the German Empire (Austria’s allies) declared war on Russia on 1st August. That’s the easy bit.
Because France was in alliance with Russia, Germany declared war on France and… wait for it… invaded Belgium! Well why not? The British Empire had guaranteed Belgium’s sovereignty, somehow guessing amongst all this that Germany would do that because the easiest way to get at France from Germany is through the Belgian lowlands of Flanders – Germany’s border with France is rather mountainous. So the British Empire declared war on Germany and sent troops to Belgium. There were several disastrous battles for the Allies both in Belgium and what is now Poland and the German/Austrian alliance seemed to be winning easily. So the Ottoman Empire decided to join the German alliance to try to get a lot of its lost eastern European territories back.
Are you still with me? Probably not but it doesn’t really matter because none of it made any sense. Japan even came into it somewhere along the line and I can’t remember why. They had been at war with Russia in 1905, but were now allies of Russia, Britain and France.. and oh yes.. Italy. And I keep saying British Empire because that brought in Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India and all those other countries represented at the Cenotaph every Remembrance Sunday. By New Year 1915, 93 years ago, the Great War had progressed through Mons, the Marne and the start of the first battle of Ypres to a trench warfare stalemate which lasted another 4 years and cost countless millions of lives on all sides.
So it seemed like a nice idea to send presents to the troops.
Up to his neck in winter mud, somewhere on the Western Front, Henry Griffin of Purton received a tin of tobacco (yes, I know…) from Princess Mary the then Princess Royal, daughter of King George V. It is 5" x 3¼" x 1" in size, and probably made from gold paint on tin. On the face of it is a bust of the Princess Royal between two monogram
'M's. Above the bust is a cartouche saying “Imperium Britanicum” (British Empire… in Latin in case you wanted any other groups involved) and below it another cartouche bearing “Christmas 1914”. To the left are three furled flags with a cirque reading “France”, to the right another cirque for “Russia” and in the four corners little badges stating “Belgium”, “Japan”, “Monte Negro” and “Servia” – they spelt it differently then. So now you know why the history lesson we started with!
When the tobacco tin was gifted to the Museum, inside it was a New Year 1915 card, again from Princess Mary, with the uplifting words inside: “With Best Wishes for a Victorious New Year from The Princess Mary and Friends at Home”.
You’ve been warned. Don’t ever let it happen again. Tobacco indeed!
PS: Unfortunately we did. War that is.
