ALTHOUGH HE'S HURT IN BOTH LEGS, black doll
DOING HER BIT, young girl as nurse
OILETTE, PRINTED IN ENGLAND or PRINTED IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, COPYRIGHT LONDON PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING LETTER ABOUT THIS SET OF POSTCARDS-with grateful acknowledgement to Tim Sands (grandson of Ada Florence Tuplin and son of Mary Elfreda Sands), 23 Sudbrooke Road, Scothern, Lincolnshire’. Doing Her Bit Postcards Raphael Tuck & Sons, published the group of postcards, Oilette Postcard No 8887, called, Doing Her Bit, during the First World War. The original photographs for these cards were taken in 1915 in Sheffield using young members of the ‘Tuplin’ family in the role of the Red Cross Nurse and, in one card, a Doctor caring for their ‘doll’ patients. It is unclear how the contact was made between the ‘Tuplins’ and Raphael Tuck. However, perhaps unusually for the time, the children’s mother, Ada Florence Tuplin (nee Simms) (1873-1948), was an enthusiastic photographer, taking and developing photographs of family events as well as more creative tableaux; one of the latter depicts a woodland scene with her daughter, basket in hand, dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood. She was, for example, a contributor to The New Photographer magazine. It may be that Raphael Tuck used a professional photographer (in Sheffield?) who was acquainted with the family. The Red Cross Nurse in the pictures is Mary Elfreda Tuplin (known as Freda) (1912-1989), aged 3½, and the doctor is her brother, Frederick Roy Tuplin (1903-1976), aged 12. One of the dolls in the pictures was named ‘Belinda’ by Freda and is by Simon Halbig and made for Kammer & Reinhardt. Ironically, in view of the time, it is a high quality German doll and may well have been a gift from Raphael Tuck. Ada Florence Tuplin was my grandmother and Mary Elfreda Tuplin my mother. Tim Sands 08/07/20
set of 6 cards
30/03/1917
Great Britain
ALTHOUGH HE'S HURT IN BOTH LEGS, black doll
8887
quote H.M.B. cont'd: I HOPE TO PULL HIM THROUGH IT; IF CARE AND SKILL CAN SAVE A MAN, A RED CROSS NURSE WILL DO IT!, comes opt. in red BIRTHDAY GREETINGS
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$25.00 USD