A COLLECTION of around 600 vintage postcards will go under the hammer in Wokingham next week.

The postcards, collected by a young girl from 1915 up until the 1920s, feature a number of mementos sent to her by her father while he was serving with the Royal Army Service Corps.

Staff Sergeant Harry Hall regularly sent postcards to his wife and daughter, Winnie, who lived outside Oxford at the time.

Winnie kept all of the postcards in two albums, including one postcard sent by her father from Calais in July 1916.

A baker by trade, Mr Hall joined the 18th Division Field Bakery, presumably based in Calais supplying bread to the troops. His postcards start in March 1915, where he was stationed in Aldershot and undergoing tests, and continue to February 1919 where he remained in Calais awaiting his return from the war. 

The albums also include the postcards sent by Harry to his wife, as well as other cards received from other family members up to the 1920s.

Auctioneer Matthew Coles, from Martin & Pole, said: “We have albums of postcards coming into our auctions every month, and there are some very interesting and collectable cards in their own right in this collection.

"However, the thread of correspondence from a father at war writing home to his wife and daughter about day to day matters brings the First World War to a personal level – including how he describes a tobacco thief in the camp as being ‘funny’ to his daughter!”

The collection is expected to fetch between £300 to £500 when it goes under the hammer on February 21 at 10am. For more information, visit www.martinpole.co.uk/auctioninformation.php.