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Field postcard from Private Donald Brown to his brother Malcolm, dated 27 August 1916

documentary heritage
  • Description

    Field postcard sent two weeks before Browns death at the Somme. Includes envelope.

  • Other Id

    14845 (Presto content ID)

    MS-2018-9-23 (Reference Number)

  • Department

    Manuscripts

Images and documents

Catalogue

  • Object Type

    manuscript

  • Name/Title
    Field postcard from Private Donald Brown to his brother Malcolm, dated 27 August 1916
  • Date
    1916
  • Physical Description

    85 mm x 142 mm

  • Language
    English
  • Level of Current Record
    Child
  • Is Part Of

    Papers relating to the First World War service of Donald Melville Wood Brown, 1916

  • Public Access Text

    Soldiers often used postcards like this to send a quick message home. Instead of writing a letter, they would choose the most fitting statement from a brief list of pre-printed options and cross out the rest. During the war, censors read all letters to ensure that they included nothing about what soldiers were doing or what their precise location was. This was to prevent important information being revealed if letters should fall into the wrong hands.

    Another reason for censorship was to prevent information in the letters from worrying families at home. Postcards like this allowed censors to approve correspondence more quickly. Sometimes soldiers self-censored their postcards and letters because they didn’t want people at home to know what they were experiencing or because it was simply too hard to express. Their brief postcards and letters home reassured loved ones that they were still alive and that their letters and parcels from home were reaching them.

    [Keywords: WWI]

  • Last Update
    04 Nov 2022
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