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Frederick Hotten’s Postcards, 1913-1920
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Fred Hotten in the family tree
Positive subject identification and dating of some of these postcards is difficult. Not all are captioned and few have passed through the post and even when they have the
postmarks are not always clear.
Family history has it that Frederick Hotten joined the regular army under-age and a number of documents confirm that to be true. One of the cards is postmarked Oakhampton 16 May 1913
when Frederick would not have been 18 and his postcards of Aldershot (mementoes of Cody’s funeral procession) suggest he was there in 1913. Cody died in the August of that year.
Frederick spent the entire period 1914 to 1918 in France with only one visit back home and after the armistice in the November was stationed in Bordon during a period of civil unrest before
becoming a civilian once again.
The only other clues to which postcard belongs to which period are based on appearance which changes from that of a teenager to a face which looks quite a lot older, as one might expect of someone
who went through the Somme and Ypres without ever having a proper break.
A postcard in the collection sent to Frederick by his younger brother James. The postmark shows 1920 reasonably clearly; the cost of a stamp had risen
from the halfpenny of 1919 to one penny; and it would appear that the photograph is of James doing his national service. The picture and the message may be seen
here.
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