Field service postcard from Samuel McKnight, 1918

Our people at work: Field service postcard from Samuel McKnight, 1918

Object details

Printed postcard with instructions for completion, including messages to be deleted as applicable. Completed in pencil. 114mm x 84mm.

'I am quite well' was the only message Samuel McKnight could give to his colleagues back home in Edinburgh while he was away on active service during the First World War. In peacetime, Samuel had been a messenger at The Royal Bank of Scotland's head office, and this is one of several postcards he sent to his fellow messengers between 1916 and 1918, all with the same message.

Samuel was killed on active service in September 1918, not long after he sent this card and just six weeks before the signing of the Armistice that ended the war. Decades later, his postcards were found tucked into an envelope in The Royal Bank of Scotland's head office, with the following covering note:

'These cards have been placed here by J. Smith, Messenger, in the hope that perhaps long after this dreadful war the name of one may again be honoured who was loved by all. 10 July 1919.'

Samuel McKnight was one of nearly 600 employees of The Royal Bank of Scotland who joined up during the First World War. Of them, 84 lost their lives and many more suffered lasting injuries. From all the British constituents that make up the modern RBS Group, over 1,500 lost their lives.

While all these men were away fighting, life at work in the banks was difficult, too. Staff faced increased workloads with restricted resources. Maintaining business as usual was another way of contributing to the war effort, and staff pitched in to do whatever they could. Nevertheless, staff shortages soon became serious, so for the first time banks began to recruit women in significant numbers. By the end of 1915, The Royal Bank of Scotland was employing around 20 women. The numbers kept rising for the rest of the war, and although most left after the return of peace, some stayed. Banking was never again to be an all male profession.

After the end of the war most banks erected memorials to the staff they had lost. These memorials displayed the names of the fallen in places of honour, usually in the most prominent or most-visited parts of head office buildings. They were a way of keeping alive the memory of lost friends and colleagues, quite literally close to the heart of the bank.

Large stone memorials were important, but staff also made more personal efforts to honour the memory of lost colleagues. The care that John Smith took of these postcards is one such tribute. By preserving these fragments of paper, he achieved his wish. Nearly 100 years later, the name of Samuel McKnight is still remembered, and honoured.

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