The humble postcard saw a variety of uses during the First World War. As well as being a standard type of communication, it also became a minor art form. A new book by historian John Wilton takes a tour through the history and diversity of these pocket-sized paper souvenirs from a century gone by.
As Wilton explains, the primary role of the wartime postcard was to deliver messages. Soldiers posted at the frontlines would send them back to their wives, sweethearts, families, and friends at home, often doing so if they had no time to write a longer, more private letter.
Whatever form these messages took, privacy was still limited. All troop correspondence had to go through a censor, whose job it was to strike out offending passages in blue pencil. The later pages of Wilton’s book contain some fascinating examples of postcards that failed to make the censor’s cut.
