A fascinating and highly unusual original 

WWI Army Service Corps manuscript intelligence report, dated 25 November 1914, 

written by an officer in Meerut Ammunition Park, 

concerning German airmen in a downed aircraft 

found with a quantity of indecent postcards, 

possibly used for suspected coded communications.

This report occurred during the postcard craze when wartime intelligence authorities 

often viewed indecent or comic postcards as suspicious, 

because their jokes, images and text areas 

could conceal coded messages, signals or invisible writing.

The report is headed with the embossed royal crest and is transcribed below:

Intelligence

Addressed to Staff Capt. R.A.

Palmam qui meruit ferat
[Translation: “Let the one who has deserved the honour receive it.” A Latin phrase famously used by Lord Nelson as his personal motto.]

Capt. Blamey A.S.C. Cmdg 1st Ind. Amm. Park, an officer of great experience, suggests that the indecent postcards found on Captain Irwin’s aviators were part of a code for communication.

2.   This was almost immediately supported by another officer stating that another German aeroplane had come down yesterday in the IV Division area, and on the aviators were found a number of indecent postcards.

Signed: Walter Jennings ? [Indistinct]

Meerut Amm ? [Indistinct]

Historical note: The first line of the report refers to Captain (later Field Marshal Sir) Thomas Blamey of the Australian Army Service Corps (A.S.C.), who commanded the 1st Indian Ammunition Park.

Foolscap, written and signed in pencil.

Condition: very good - see scans, light toning, folded once, minor marks and light wear consistent with an original period manuscript document.