My brother and I went through some old documents and photos that my Mum had hoarded for many years and among them were two Christmas Cards that my grandad - the original James Gibbon - had sent home from the front in 1917. He was a medical orderly and he would have been 23 years old that Christmas.
Considering these are 105 years old they're in remarkable condition. The first card is embroidered with what seems to be fine wool.
(https://i.ibb.co/vwzX6M2/cardcover.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/pjxpnkK/cardinside.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/Kw78h0z/card2cover.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/Sn6VSD6/card2inside.jpg)
A remarkable find.
We've got an album of these that were sent by my grandad, Gunner Arnold James Matthews, to my grandmother from the same time.
We cleared the last of the things out of mum's last week and I gave them to my sister, along with his medals and diary listing the regiment's actions. She has kids, we don't so I don't know whether I'll ever see them again, tbh
They're brilliant James, particularly intrigued by the second one and the units chosen to be on it. These were usually made by local women who then sold them to the men so, maybe these were the units that one particular location had seen pass through? Or might be units of a a Division?
Heading out for a few days on the battlefields on Saturday as it happens :)