Pictures you might just have seen before, especially if you have the little booklet “Marlow in the First World War”.

However, any postcard collector will tell you that it is preferable to have original editions rather than copies, so I was really delighted last month to be given this original in the main picture above, produced by photographer Frank Colville, whose studio was in Station Road.

My scanned copy, obtained many years ago, and the one previously published, is nowhere near as crisp.

It has thrown up an interesting query since on the back of this newly obtained postcard is a pencilled note, looking contemporary with the card itself, and reading “Soldiers’ Camp, Marlow, 1913”.

I am fairly sure the date should be 1916, when the troops, coming to the end of their training schedules, gave an “Open Day” for the people of Marlow, and there are a number of civilians and ladies in floppy hats to be seen.

Roast joints of meat, the “Dinner”, were cooked outdoors in sizeable brick ovens.

Bottom right looks to be a picture at the same event, although not the same oven: there must have been more than one: there is no trench in front of this one, and it seems nearer to the tents.

This is also a Frank Colville original, but one which has been in the family for decades – on the right in straw boater is my great uncle Herbie White, a well known sportsman, football and cricket, who went on to be a top Football League referee.

Bottom left is another card showing the inside of the “Butcher’s Shop” on the camp site: no shortage of meat, but obviously no restrictions on smoking whilst on the job! I have inserted above it the message on the back, signed “From Your Good Old Dad”, one of the two seated on the ground. I wonder if he survived the war.

Going back to the date query, there were certainly various troop training exercises in and around Marlow before the outbreak of war in 1914, and some, involving the Army Service Corps (ASC), confirmed in Gerald Berkeley Wills’ “Notes On Old Marlow”, occasionally took place in the fields near Bovingdon Green and Marlow Common, but I have doubts that there were permanent facilities such as pictured here.

I am sticking with 1916, but any further information is welcomed. I am not always correct!

Contact Michael on michael@jazzfans.co or 01628 486571