Collecting Raphael Tuck Wartime Picture Books

MILITARIA COLLECTING

Picture books have been used to educate youngsters for centuries and publishers found colourful ways of chronicling World War Two in a way youngsters could understand. Austin J Ruddy shows how Britain’s foremost picture book publisher went to war.

‘The Home Front’, by ‘Daily Express’ war reporter Hilde Marchant, must have proved successful, as it was reprinted in medium format with photos.
(ALL IMAGES AUSTIN J RUDDY)
The role women played on the Home Front was explained in this mediumsized book with a colourful cover, ‘Our Wonderful Women’, by Cecil Hunt.

But disaster struck on the night of December 29, 1940 – the ‘Second Great Fire of London’ – when Tuck’s headquarters, Raphael House, off Tenter Street, Aldgate was burned out by German incendiary bombs, destroying 74 years of records, including more than 40,000 original illustrations and photographs. However, the Tucks were not beaten and rose again, producing patriotic postcards and colourful greetings cards, plus, secretly, paper escape and evasion materials for MI9.

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