I first became interested in paper charity flags when I saw some in an antique shop in the early 1990s. They were stuck to a card and had obviously been in a scrap book. This rendered them useless to a collector in many ways but it had allowed the previous owner to write dates and information next to them, so they were more interesting in another way.
As you can see – ambulances were a popular subject. The stories of privately raised medical units, and the people who staffed them could be a book in itself. This list gives you some idea. Add Lawrence Binyon to it. He often gets overlooked.
Over the years I added a few more, even buying a few off a lady who had kept one of each that she had sold for the Red Cross in 1918. She was sitting with her grand-daughter at an antiques fair in a Suffolk village hall. She was happy that the flags had found a good home, and I was happy to have spent a few minutes chatting with a lady who had eighty years of history behind her. That was in the days when it used to be worth stopping when you saw a sign by the roadside.
Horses were popular too. Eight million horses died in the Great War, plus countless mules and donkeys. They had, as far as I know, no strong views on Belgian neutrality, and didn’t get the right to vote in 1918 after their contribution to the war effort. All in all I think they got a raw deal.
There’s a good Word Press site on military horses but I can’t find it at the moment – I’ll have another look tonight.
As with almost everything, I have various parts of the collection scattered in a variety of boxes around the house, and have a patchy knowledge of the subject. If only I’d applied myself to learning more about the subject I might be an expert with a PhD on litter and a TV series on The Things We Threw Away. Stranger things have happened.
I took a few photographs recently, so here are a few examples for you to look at.
Belgians were also popular in the Great War (see Hercule Poirot for example) and ended up here in great numbers. This link told me a lot I didn’t know about them. I’ve seen the odd plaque about, including one in the Nottingham Guildhall but I never really looked into the subject. I believe that Belgians did have strong views on Belgian neutrality – look here and here for two who certainly did.
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This is an interesting bit of history, Quercus. If you find the military war horses site, please let readers know!
I’ll have a look tonight – I fell asleep last night! 🙂
That was really neat, you definitely are uncovering and foraging for a lot of interesting history memorabilia. Thanks for sharing.
No problem. I have, as Julia tactfully puts it, a lot of interesting rubbish and no reticence about sharing it. 🙂
I’ve never seen any of these
You need to move in the right circles – in this case we are one step from the bin. 🙂
🙂
The house where Laurence Binyon was born is about 50yards from where I work. It has a plaque, but I often wonder how many people notice or know who he was.
It’s a small world!
Yes, a raw deal. Poor creatures! So much history in those flags.
Yes, there is. A few flags and Wikipedia and you have a whole new history of the Great War.
They’re so cute, I can see why people like them. 🙂
Yes, I’m a sucker for brightly coloured tat.