Cigarette Cards of WWI

Kate Adie in "Fighting on the Home Front: The Legacy of Women in World War One" (2013) draws attention to the way in which tobacco manufacturers increased the production of cigarettes to meet the needs of soldiers at the outbreak of war. Easy to carry, comforting, many who had never smoked before took the habit up on joining up.

 

Cigarette cards as a marketing strategy had existed since the 1890s. Many themes had been used the get the attention of consumers - glamour, militaria, gardening, wildlife - but the war and the enormous consumption of cigarettes encouraged manufacturers to explore every possible subject matter in order capture the market.

 

There were a few very large producers such as Players and Wills, and a large number of smaller. Collectors of cigarette cards usually collect by manufacturer and so I shall follow this convention. The following list is not by any means the entire list of UK Great War issues.

 

Abdulla & Co

  • Commanders of the Allies 1914
  • Great War Gift Packing Cards 1915
  • Princess Mary Gift Card 1914

Adkin and Sons

  • War Trophies 1917

Anglo Cigarette Manufacturing

  • War Portraits 1915
  • British Naval Crests 1916
  • Celebrities of the Great War 1915
  • Crests and Badges of the British Army 1916
  • Lord Kitchener 1915
  • The European War series 1915
  • Types of British Soldiers 1914
  • Regimental Badges 1915

Ardath Tobacco

  • Great War (three series) 1916

Carreras

Churchman

Cockayne

  • Victoria Cross Heroes 1915-16
  • War Series 1916

Co-Operative Society

  • War series 1914

Cope

  • VC and DSO Naval and Flying Heroes 1916
  • War series 1915

Davies

  • Army Life 1915

Major Drapkin

  • Army Insignia 1915
  • Celebrities of the Great War 1916
  • Regimental Colours and Badges of the Indian Army 1915
  • Soldiers and their uniforms 1914

Edwards Ringer

  • War Map of the Western Front 1916/7

Gallaher

Hignett Bros.

  • Company Drill 1915
  • Military Portraits 1914

R & J Hill

  • Battleships 1914
  • Fragments from France 1916
  • Great War Leaders 1917
  • Types of the British Army 1914
  • War Series 1915

Lambert Butler

  • Naval Portraits 1914/5

R J Lea

  • War Pictures 1915
  • War Portaits 1915

Stephen Mitchell

  • Army Ribbons and Buttons 1916
  • British Warships 1915

B Morris

  • War Celebrities 1916
  • War Pictures 1916

Ogdens

  • Infantry Training 1915
  • Modern War Weapons 1915

Godfrey Philips

  • Real Photo Series (War Leaders) 1916
  • War Photos 1916
  • Great War Leaders and Celebrities 1916
  • Victoria Cross Heroes 1915

John Player

Wills Ltd