Recommend a Website

The silk-embroidered postcards of the First World War are well known to many forces postal historians and have been extensively documented by Dr Ian Collins.

What is less well known is that silk postcards were also produced during the Second World War. Far fewer exist, owing to changes in society, the nature of warfare, and the numbers of servicemen involved. They are not easy to identify, and very little has been written about them.

To help address this, I have established a website that aims to identify, collate, and categorise these postcards. It currently contains 248 examples that Dr Collins and I believe date from the Second World War. The work is not complete, and I hope that FPHS members will examine their own collections, contribute additional examples, and share their comments.

Useful if you, like me, are puzzled by some abbreviations used

Military abbreviations used in service files - Canada.ca

I have been passed a listing of online resources of the Army, RAF and Navy lists compiled by John Copeland (not a member but an individual who has made a couple of enquiries to us). The lists stretch from 1661 to 1994 (but with gaps, particularly in the latter years). This is a Word document 50 pages long, but for those of you looking for individual officers it may well be a useful resource (and possibly save you a visit to The National Archives to look at the actual publications).

For those of you who are interested in modern British Forces Post Offices you may be interested to learn that there are two online sources available:

The National Archives have archived the BFPO Website on a number of occasions between 2004 and 2011:

This link takes you to the UK Government Web Archive (ukgwa) held by The National Archives:

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/find-a-website/atoz/#b