Summary

'Flags that help the Motherland' is a postcard from the Flags of the Empire, The "Classic" All British Series - no.16, card. no. 216, published by W.N. Sharpe Ltd., Bradford & London, probably during the Boer War. The postcard is in unissued condition.

The firm of W.N. Sharpe Ltd published a series of patriotic postcards spanning the years of the Boer, or South African War (1899-1902) and the First World War (1914-18). This particular card depicts the flags of four British colonies, Canada, Australia, Cape Colony and New Zealand. Following the Boer War, Cape Colony remained nominally under British rule until the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, at which point it was renamed the Cape of Good Hope Province or, more commonly, the Cape Province.

Although the postcard is unissued and not post-marked, depiction of the Cape Colony flag suggests a date pre-1910 making it most likely to date to the period of patriotism surrounding the Boer War.

Physical Description

Boer War patriotic postcard titled 'Flags that help the Motherland' depicting the four flags of British colonies, including Canada, Australia, Cape Colony and New Zealand. The postcard was published by W.N. Sharpe Ltd., Bradford & London.

Significance

Commercially printed Boer War patriotic postcard published by W.N. Sharpe, Bradford & London, Great Britain. Such postcards provide an interesting insight into issues of patriotism, nationalism and empire in the final years of the British Empire in the early twentieth century.

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