In the 21st century it’s difficult to appreciate quite how popular postcards were as a means of communication in the 1910s. They were inexpensive to purchase, and the postal service was cheap and efficient, and so people sent postcards for many of the reasons that we might today send a mobile phone text, email or WhatsApp message. Millions of postcards were sent every year.
It’s common to discover postcards in your family’s archive bearing messages from your ancestors. In particular, soldiers in the trenches of the First World War and merchant seamen are good examples of people who were inclined to send lots of postcards, as they were often away from home for prolonged periods. Frequently, postcards were written in pencil because a pencil was more portable than a pen and a bottle of ink. Messages in pencil were also more durable if postcards became wet.
People obtained their postcards from a variety of sources. Soldiers in the First World War
