Canadian & British Photos & Postcards

WWI & WWII images of Canadian and British military history from a private collection. Will sometimes sidetrack into insignia and ephemera. Pause and reflect.

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

A tight squeeze for Royal Navy battleship HMS Nelson as she traverses the Panama Canal in 1931. She has canvas deck awnings rigged in the tropical heat. #RoyalNavy @HMWarships

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

On the night of June 5/6, 450 men of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion drop into Normandy as part of the British 6th Airborne Division. #DDay #Canada #WW2

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

#ThrowbackThursday #tbt

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

1945 postcard from the #Canada Club for service members in Rome, #Italy.

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

#ThrowbackThursday #tbt

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

June, 1918: the Major-General is not happy with the language used by #Canadians in the Second Division. #WWI @2divca_2candiv

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

@Golf49A I've never seen a compilation of 'The Listening Post'; it would be a worthwhile endeavour, I think!

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

Canadian 'trench newspaper', "The Listening Post" dated May 18, 1916. Full of in-jokes, gossip and satires on newspaper ads--like the reference to Mulligan stew and its questionable ingredients! #Canada #WWI

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

Claude Moore, born in Michigan, USA, was farming in Alberta when he joined the Royal North-West Mounted Police for overseas service (he is the man standing at the back with bandolier). He served with the Canadian Tank Corps in England. #Canada #tanks #RCMP

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

Some Royal Marine Light Infantry enjoy a beer during shore leave in Nagasaki, Japan, circa 1890. @RoyalMarinesMus @TheGreenBeret #Japan

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

#ThrowbackThursday #tbt

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

A Pilot of the Royal Flying Corps assigned to the Italian Front, circa 1918. @RoyalAirForce #WWI #FWW #postcard

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

#ThrowbackThursday. #tbt

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

I don't think I've ever had a card with such a cool, collected Jack Nicholson-type character! A soldier of one of #NovaScotia's highland battalions chills out in this undated Canadian-made #postcard. #WWI #FWW #Canada

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

Privately purchased wrist identification tag from Alexander McMillan, born in Portree, Scotland. A bank accountant when he joined in September 1914, he was wounded in 1915 and 1918, awarded the Military Medal, and returned to Canada. #Scotland #Canada

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

Update! He is Trumpeter Duly, 9th Lancers. A music hall acrobat who joined up and went to India and then Afghanistan; his daughter was also on the stage (which explains the somewhat performative air of this card). Thanks to a British collector for this info!

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

"My Daddy Was the Trumpeter": an old soldier (possibly of the 9th Lancers) wears his Afghan 1878 medal with three bars and the Kabul to Kandahar Star. A card which raises more questions than it answers! #England #Afghanistan #BritishArmy

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

Flossie and Lizzy, bear cub mascots of the 131st Battalion in camp at Vernon, British Columbia in 1915. #Canada #WWI #bear

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

Remembering Jackie Mullen, one of nine children raised by his mother (deserted by their father) in Vancouver during the Depression. Jackie was killed May 24, 1944 at the Melfa River in Italy. #Canada #Italy #Vancouver

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

The Other Guys: a lone sentry keeps die wacht. Likely an Austro-Hungarian soldier, he wears a rohrhandgranate on his belt. In the background is what appears to be a gas alarm gong. #WWI

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

May 21st, 1915: "Henry", likely serving in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, sends a hand-embroidered silk card home for someone special. #Yorkshire #WWI #postcard #OTD

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

#ThrowbackThursday #tbt

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

"CAM", the in-house magazine for the Canadian Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers used striking 1940s graphics to get their message out. #RCEME #WW2 #SWW #GraphicDesign

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

#ThrowbackThursday #tbt

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

Iconic #Saskatchewan view: the 214th "Wildcats" Battalion leaves #Wadena for Camp Hughes, June, 1916. Open-air service conducted next to a grain elevator alongside the #Canadian National Railway tracks. Note foot-pump organ! #WWI #FWW

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

Liverpudlian Charles Blower joined up in August 1914, in the newly-formed Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. Wounded at Ypres in 1915, he recovered and later became Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant. He returned to Saskatchewan in 1919. #PPCLI

[Canadian & British Photos & Postcards @CanMilPostcards]

1908: three sisters and their brother visit HMS Eagle, an older ship turned training establishment in Liverpool for the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. #Liverpool @HMWarships