Australian Divisional Engineers Christmas Card (1916)
 
This inscribed WWI Christmas Card comes from a Soldier attached to the Australian Divisional Engineers.
 
Christmas 1913 - just prior to the First World War - marked the 70th anniversary of the first commercially produced Christmas card. At the time, there were over forty Christmas card publishers and wholesalers in London who employed many thousands of people to produce and distribute cards. As with the general public, the armed forces were also attracted to the card phenomenon and the use of specially designed and produced cards was commonplace for many units. The trend of using greeting cards has continued to this day, with soldiers sending and receiving both commercial, official and handmade cards to family and friends whilst on active service. 
 
The use of handmade cards was especially prevalent during the early conflicts and in prisoner of war camps due to the unavailability of commercial cards. The use of handmade cards is less common in the last few decades, mostly due to the proliferation of commercial card manufacturers.
 
Soft Cover
8 pages
In Fair to Good Condition