Published: Thursday, 14th May, 2009 9:00am

Retro: What's cooking here?

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THERE seem to be several Retro readers interested in military history, so I"m hoping they can help me out with this postcard.

It was never posted, and there is no publisher"s name on the back, but I would guess that it dates from the time of the First World War, and that it is meant to be humorous.

Ten of the 11 men are in army uniform, and nine are wearing greatcoats. Several are wearing puttees round their lower legs.

Many are sporting military moustaches, and several have brought the tools of their trade.

Two have rifles, one an axe, one a saucepan, another a large lidded vessel, one a bucket, and one a very large frying-pan.

They are photographed in front of an industrial building with large windows. I can"t help wondering if it was the job of the man with the axe to chop up the wood for the fire on which the cooking was done.

On the back of the postcard, someone has written the following message: 'Mother is afraid you are forgetting her - she had a new purse from Father last Friday, but she never received a p.c. or a line from anyone else. (Don"t forget the tenth).' There is no indication of who wrote the message, or who it was meant for, or when it was written. In fact, there"s nothing to connect it with Reading, as far as I can make out. But other people may have copies of this postcard, and may know more about it than I do.

Please get in touch if you can help - call 0118 963 3152.

Thanks to the people who let me know about the Second World War photograph which appeared in Retro on March 5.

What I had taken to be wedding-bells painted on the mudguard of the car turned out to be Bow Bells - the emblem of the 47th London Division of the Territorial Army. The picture probably wasn"t taken in Reading at all, which is a bit disappointing, but no matter.

The main thing is the finding out!