This cover was mailed from the Boer War to Belgium on July 5, 1900. It appears to have been from the same prolific writer who mailed several other J.C. Wilson covers from O’Okiep, CGH during the war.

This example of a J.C. Wilson patriotic cover front shows a use from Ookiep, Cape of Good Hope, to Cornwall England on April 23, 1900. This is another of the series of J.C. Wilson covers used by the same sender to the same recipient over the course of several months during the Boer War.

A very nice copy of J.C. Wilson’s Tattered Flag pioneer patriotic postcard from the Boer War era has been added to the site. This card, mailed from Montreal on March 21, 1902 to Crowell & Kirkpatrick Co. of New York, was received in New York on March 22nd.

One of the rarest of J.C. Wilson’s patriotic postcards is the design known as WLS-P10, “Soldiers of the Queen Redesign”, which was issued during the Boer War. This particular example is unused.

This WLS-P04 shows an early use of this design, postmarked June 11, 1898. The card bears a hand notation from Buffalo, suggesting that the purchaser may have either been on the Canadian side of the border when they purchased the card, or that J.C. Wilson had US distributors in Buffalo from an early date.

Another example of a J.C. Wilson patriotic postcard with a song back has been added. This card is a WLS-P06 Type I card, the Anglo-Saxon design, postally used from Wolfeville NS to the USA in July 1900.

A variation of J.C. Wilson’s series of patriotic postcards exists that includes a scaled down version of a patriotic song on the postcard back, similar to that printed on the company’s patriotic envelopes. While Henry Gates was unfamiliar with this variation, Kenneth Rowe noted in his The Postal History of the Canadian Contingents, Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902, that he knew of a single example of “When Johnny Canuck Comes Home” being printed on the back of a postcard, but no other instance. Needless to say, this is a rarely occurring variety.

I’ve updated the section on patriotic postcards with song backs to include a new instance found on a WLS-P02 Type II that has patriotic song no. 2 on the reverse.