Postcard and handkerchief

During the First World War (1914-19), French women and girls embroidered silk postcards for soldiers to send home to their wives and girlfriends. Hundreds of thousands of men from Britain and her Allies (such as New Zealand) were stationed in France. The anxieties of separation and distance fuelled a thriving cottage industry of postcard making.

These were no ordinary postcards. Delicate silk embroidered with flowers, flags and messages of love and affection, were attached to card, but were obviously not robust enough to be franked and sent as normal postcards. Instead, they were carefully sent in their own envelopes, or safely tucked into letters. They were meant to stay pristine and beautiful, to be cherished by the recipient.

These beautiful souvenirs of France are in extreme contrast to the ugliness of the war, and show us one of the ways soldiers sought momentary respite from the horrors around them, and to keep their lives linked to those left behind.