The Pardon Came Too Late .............. postcards from Holmfirth

I am intrigued by three picture postcards which I had at first assumed were produced during the Great War.

Each carried an image relating to the execution of a British soldier along with verses from a music hall song.

Now the image of the young soldier awaiting execution for cowardice or desertion is a powerful one and can still provoke debate about how the British army dealt with men who for differing reasons showed what some chose to call a “lack of moral fibre” and today we see as a symptom of combat fatigue.

In total 306 British and Commonwealth soldiers were shot during the course of the Great War and their names tended not to be recorded on the Rolls of Honour.

So these three cards drew me in

The idea that a company would issue these during the war seeded a tad off and the verses actually  predate the war having been written by Paul Dresser in 1891.

Mr Dresser was born in 1857 in Indiana and made his living from singing and song writing becoming very popular during the 1880s and 90s.

And that raises the possibility that these three were produced sometime before the war.

The clue might well be that they were made and issued by Bamforth & Co of  Holmfirth and these three carry the catalogue number 4829/2 so once I have found their catalogue it should be possible to date them.

At present and it is a long shot the company moved their film production to London in 1913 and these three all carry the imprint of Holmfirth and New York.

So maybe they are pre 1913, but that said the jury is still out but I bet there will be someone who can help.

And of course there was.  David tells me that the song sheets were published during the war as were the three postcards which ia an interesting take on attitudes to the war and leaves me wondering if a song sheet will turn up.

We shall see.

Picture; THE PARDON CAME TO LATE (1) & (3) Bamforth & Co, Ltd, date unknown, from the collection of David Harrop