Do You Know George Green of 16 Hope Street, Southport – England Who Lived here During World War One?

Do you know George GREEN who lived at 16 Hope Street, Southport in England during World War One?  If so, we are seeking to make contact with him or one of his descendants.

Medals Gone Missing have recently purchased a First World War postcard from ebay. The card was sent by a British soldier to his son, ‘Master George Green’ sometime during the Great War.  The card itself is a wonderful photographic print, which depicts two Allies – a French soldier and a British soldier, protectively flanking a young girl who is holding the French flag.   Whilst the image is essentially a sepia print photograph, the original of the image has been ‘hand painted’ and shows the French soldier adorned in his traditional red coloured breeches with grey/blue tunic.  The English soldier of course, is wearing his khaki coloured woollen tunic and trousers, complete with a visored cap and puttees.

IMAGE RIGHT:  The postcard, showing a French soldier and a British soldier, seated alongside the young French girl.  Patriotic images such as this, simply reinforced that the British and the French ….. once sworn enemies from the Napoleonic era ….. were now united Allies; fighting a common foe.  Note the ‘graffitti’, presumably done by a young George Green. 

The reverse side of the postcard shows the handwriting of the author; the father of young George GREEN. This soldier has obviously written the postcard whilst away from home; possibly whilst on deployment in France as you would expect from the subject matter.  The card is addressed to Master G. GREEN of 16 Hope Street, Southport in England.  The script on the card states:- to Georgie with love and kisses from Father.  It’s a little girl this time.   One can only assume from this last comment, that his father had previously sent a postcard with the image of a young French boy?

As little boys do, some pen marks or ‘graffitti’ have been applied to the front of the card; namely on the nose of the French soldier and the chin of the British soldier.  Perhaps young George was scolded by his mother for defacing the images like this.  I would love to be able to locate George and ask him !!

IMAGE LEFT:  The handwriting of a loving father, to his son George Green of Southport – England.  If you are a descendant of George Green who lived at 16 Hope Street, then Medals Gone Missing would dearly love to hear from you.  There is no greater sense of satisfaction than returning such items of militaria to it’s rightful family.

If Master George GREEN is still alive, he would be a very ripe old age indeed.  The Medals Gone Missing Administrator is seeking any descendant of “young” George with the view of returning this piece of Great War history to it’s rightful owner.

Whilst the postcard was purchased for a very small price – the princely sum of $5 AUD …… small tokens of a father’s love, such as this – are priceless !   And the Medals Gone Missing Administrator would like to remind our readers that it is not simply missing war medals; that are the focus of our ‘non profit’ organisation.  We are constantly purchasing small items such as this, in the hope that one day – they will be returned to their respective family.

I sincerely hope that the father of George Green survived the war, to see his young son grow up.  Without a first name, or even an initial …… it is near impossible to find out the fate of George’s father.  A search of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records indicate that thousands of men by the surname of GREEN, tragically lost their life during the First World War. 

The sad fact is, it is highly possible that George grew up to fight his own war from 1939 through to 1945.

FOOTNOTE: If one of our FRENCH readers could kindly translate the inscription on the bottom of the card, we would appreciate it.

RESULT: My thanks to one of our readers, Rick Christopher who provided the translation:- “I will live free and happy again under folds of the triclour flag”.