JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
This postcard was provided to British servicemen during WWI for a brief, highly abbreviated, communication with folks at home. The writer could choose between being well, or being in the hospital (via illness or being wounded), or being sent “down to the base”. There’s a following bit about whether the soldier had received mail and what kind, and then a memory note, telling the receiver that they had “received no letter” from them “lately” or for a heartbreaking “long time”.
There’s room for a signature–the only writing not a circle–and then room for nothing else. (Another version of this postcard below has been utilized with the “writer” placing a line through the text that was not applicable. In this case the postcard was identified as being for use by British POWs.)
As the card states very explicitly, any other writing would lead to the card being destroyed.
It wasn’t much, but for the recipient, it might have been enough. Pity those who received this card with only “for a long time” circled.
- “The reverse of a field service postcard showing entries, such as ‘I am quite well’, to be deleted by the sender as appropriate.” MH 34058″ Source: Imperial War Museum http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/podcasts/voices-of-the-first-world-war/podcast-21-news-from-the-front
See also this post with another example of a WWI “form letter” : “An Extraordinary POW Postcard 1918” [https://historyofideasblog.com/thesciencebookstore/2014/09/an-extraordinary-censorable-pow-postcard-1918.html]
