Monday 6 April 2009

Grandma's postcards 2: D McGill

This card was sent by my grandfather on 5th November 1917. It’s franked on the back in black by the Army Post Office and in red with ‘Passed by the Censor,’ but there’s no message for the censor to pass – ‘Poor old Charlie’ is the only writing apart from the address. My grandfather’s middle name was Charles.
The drawing is an early one by Donald McGill, famous for his saucy seaside postcards. He produced around 12,000 postcard designs in a career starting in 1904 and ending in 1962 when he died, aged 87 – an average of over 200 a year for 58 years.
In 1941 George Orwell wrote an essay on him, and in the 50s, when he was eighty years old, he was charged with obscenity and made to pay a fine.
This card is no. 1215 in ‘The Front’ series, published by Inter-Art Co. Red Lion Square, London, W.C. (in case you’re interested).

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