The little reminders of the Great War ........

 I have become fascinated by those miniature porcelain pieces which were produced during the Great War.

They continue to come on to the market despite the passage of a over a century and their propensity to have been chipped, broken, or just thrown away.

They were turned out in their thousands and will have resided on mantlepieces, glass cabinets and other “special” places.

The porcelain companies, seeing the potential of war souvenirs switched from models of Blackpool Tower and Ann Hathaway’s cottage to tanks, battleships and ambulances.

They turned out identical ones, with just the name of a different town or city and coat of arms to distinguish them.

Some I guess were bought on the spur of the moment, perhaps as a reminder of a loved one serving in the armed forces, or as a quiet but determined statement of patriotism while others will have been presents

Many of the pieces were just general reminders of the war, like a tank, an ambulance or a battleship, but sometimes we get the name of a ship, like this one of the HMHS Anglia, which was a hospital ship.

My Wikipedia tells me was a steam ship requisitioned for use as a hospital ship during the First World War. On 17 November 1915 she hit a mine laid by the German U-boat, UC-5. n 17 

HMHS Anglia “was returning from Calais to Dover, carrying 390 injured officers and soldiers. At around 12:30 pm, 1 nautical mile (1.9 km) east of Folkestone Gate, HMHS Anglia struck a mine and sank in fifteen minutes. 

The nearby torpedo gunboat HMS Hazard helped evacuate the passengers and crew. Despite the assistance of the nearby collier Lusitania, 134 people died in the sinking. 

In October 2014, there were calls for the wreck of the ship to be designated a war grave and protected under the Protection of Military Remains Act, 1986".

What makes the piece a little more remarkable is that on one side it carries the additional inscription, “Great War 1914-1918 The German Fleet Surrendered 14 Warships November 21st, 1918”.*

And not to be outdone I threw in the Scarborough ambulance.

Picture; miniature porcelain pieces, circa 1914-1918, from the collection of David Harrop

*HMHS Anglia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMHS_Anglia