A strange stylistic mixture of illustration, some more lifelike than others.
Obviously a bit of a career or recruitment thing. National Service only had a few years left to go (my late father was one of the last intakes c. 1958).
These cards very much remind me of my childhood Herald plastic soldiers.
Hello I'm Mark Mr MIN, Man of TIN. Based in S.W. Britain, I'm a lifelong collector of "tiny men" and old toy soldiers, whether tin, lead or childhood vintage 1960s and 1970s plastic figures.
I randomly collect all scales and periods and "imagi-nations" as well as lead civilians, farm and zoo animals. I enjoy the paint possibilities of cheap poundstore plastic figures as much as the patina of vintage metal figures.
Befuddled by the maths of complex boardgames and wargames, I prefer the small scale skirmish simplicity of very early Donald Featherstone rules.
To relax, I usually play solo games, often using hex boards. Gaming takes second place to making or convert my own gaming figures from polymer clay (Fimo), home-cast metal figures of many scales or plastic paint conversions. I also collect and game with vintage Peter Laing 15mm metal figures, wishing like many others that I had bought more in the 1980s ...
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2 thoughts on “Our Modern Army 1950s cards”
Great images. I have a lot of cigarette card sets on military subjects but not come across this one before. I like the interpretation of what a modern army should look like. The woman is a typist! What they would have made of the news the other day of women in the SAS, I can’t imagine.
I quite agree how remarkable the changes are, now that all frontline jobs are open to women. The great War Games writer Donald Featherstone typed his way through the war in Italy near the frontline in the Tank Regiment. There is a touching little poem about this in the back of Wargaming Commando Operations and other lost bits of Featherstone.
Man of Tin blog 
Great images. I have a lot of cigarette card sets on military subjects but not come across this one before. I like the interpretation of what a modern army should look like. The woman is a typist! What they would have made of the news the other day of women in the SAS, I can’t imagine.
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I quite agree how remarkable the changes are, now that all frontline jobs are open to women. The great War Games writer Donald Featherstone typed his way through the war in Italy near the frontline in the Tank Regiment. There is a touching little poem about this in the back of Wargaming Commando Operations and other lost bits of Featherstone.
LikeLike