Catalogue description AYRTON COLLECTION of World War One Postcards by Bruce Bairnsfather

The postcards are from Bystander's Fragments from France, Series 1-8, and are sepia monochrome reproductions of pen and ink wash drawings. Nominally 3.3" by 5.3" (85mm by 135mm) in size, they are in landscape and portrait formats. Most contain the reproduced Bruce Bairnsfather signature, although a few are identified by initials only. One or two have additional notation, such as "Belgium 1915". The truncation of these inscriptions indicates that at least some postcards have been reproduced from illustrations larger than those depicted. All have a printed caption and/or a title, and are marked "Bystander" Copyright.

The postmark, where visible, is "Nottingham", and many cards bear the additional franking "Buy National War Bonds Now". The stamps are invariably King George V halfpenny green definitives. The normally pencil manuscript messages are quite legible. As to be expected, the messages themselves concern only simple family matters.

Sources: Who Was Who 1951-1960, Adam & Charles Black, 1961

Holt, T, & Holt, V: Picture Postcards of the Golden Age, Granada Publishing, 1971

Oldham Archives Service: Accessions 1994 Supplementary Information File.

They have been listed in order of date of message.

Ayrton, Norman, fl 1910-2000

The collected postcards were donated to Oldham Archives Service by Norman Ayrton in 1994.

• Bairnsfather, Bruce, 1888-1959, cartoonist
• Illustration
• World War I, 1914-1918

These postcards illustrate the work of Bruce Bairnsfather (1888-1959), a humorous cartoonist who drew for the Bystander. In 1914, Bairnsfather went to France with the Royal Warwickshire Regt, enduring two years of trench warfare. His cartoons threw sometimes light, sometimes dark humour on an appalling situation. Bairnsfather's principal military character was "Ole Bill". With his companions, "Ole Bill" came to the London stage in August 1917, when Bairnsfather co-operated in writing a play entitled "The Better 'Ole". The name came from one of his best-known cartoons, where "Ole Bill", hiding in a shell crater, says "Well if you knows of a better 'ole, go to it." The cartoons were later collated and published as fragments from France, and the Bystander also issued many as postcards. A copy of the "Better 'Ole" postcard is at D-AYRT 2.

Fred Ayrton 188[?7]-1957] was a clerk on military service during World War One. While serving in Nottingham, he sent a series of Bairnsfather postcards to his 6-7 year old son Norman, in Oldham. The message on the earliest indicates that it was the first sent, on 26th November 1917: "I hope you will like this P.C...P.S. There are no more Nursery Rhymes Post Cards". Forty-seven cards were collected by his son over the next six months, the final one sent on 24th May 1918: "This is the last P.C. as I have now sent them all."