An embroidered postcard, dated 19 June 1916, sent by Alfred Duncan, a soldier fighting in France, to his mother Emily, in Adelaide.

The postcards were embroidered by the women of French villlages where the soldiers were billeted. It would take between four to eight hours to complete each card which were sold to the soldiers for a few francs. Later a rough assembly line style of work was created by some of the Paris postcard businesses, with some deterioration in the quality of the work.

Private Alfred Duncan was wounded during fighting at Dernancourt on 5 April 1918, and subsequently died. The battle at Dernancourt was part of the March 1918 offensive with Australian troops commanded to hold the vital areas of Dernancourt and Villers-Bretonneux from German capture.

View Duncan's AIF service record [National Archives of Australia]

Duncan family

Carlyon, Les The great war, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, 2006

Gammage, Bill The broken years: Australian soldiers in the Great War, Ringwood, Vic.: Penguin Books, 1990

Kent, David From trench and troopship: the experience of the Australian Imperial Force, 1914-1919, Alexandria, N.S.W.: Hale & Iremonger , 1999

Laffin, John World War I in post-cards, South Melbourne: Sun Books, 1990, c1988

Macdougall, Anthony Australians at war: a pictorial history, Nobel Park, Vic.: Five Mile Press, 2002

1918 Australians in France [previous exhibition from Australian War Memorial]

AIF Database: Australian Anzacs in the Great War 1914-1918 [Australian Defence Force Academy]

Anzac Day Commemoration Committee (Queensland) See: History: World War 1Australians at War [Department of Veterans' Affairs]

Australian War Memorial See: Australians at War: Australian Military History Overview: First World War 1914-1918

Australian Army History Unit [Department of Defence]: See: History in focus [several sections about World War One]

Official history of Australia in the war of 1914-1918 [Australian War Memorial]

RSL Virtual War Memorial