Jersey and Guernsey postcards make up a large part of this collection, and the Channel Islands have a striking wartime history behind them. German forces occupied the islands from 30 June 1940 until Liberation Day on 9 May 1945, making them the only part of the British Isles to fall under Nazi occupation during the Second World War. Postcards from both before and after this period capture island life across Jersey, Guernsey and their smaller neighbours, Alderney and Sark.
The Isle of Man contributes postcards of Tynwald, established by Viking settlers in 979 and recognised as the world's oldest continuous parliament, along with the island's TT motorcycle races, first run in 1907 on the St John's Short Course and still held on the island's public roads today.
Isle of Wight postcards are led by Osborne House, the seaside retreat Queen Victoria and Prince Albert built between 1845 and 1851 near Cowes. Victoria used it as her private escape from court life for over fifty years and died there in 1901, and postcards of the house and its gardens remain popular with collectors.
Postcards from St Helier and St Peter Port, Douglas on the Isle of Man, and Ryde on the Isle of Wight appear in this collection too, and we add new stock regularly.
