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