Object Details

From:NHerts

Name/TitleThe Overseas Club Christmas Day Gift Certificate 1915

About this objectThe Overseas Club was founded in 1910 with a vision of uniting individuals subjects of the British Empire in close comradeship. In 1915 The Overseas Club was providing Christmas presents to soldiers of the Empire fighting in the First World War. The certificate certifies that Elsie Sayer of Hitchin, a 'School child of the Empire', helped to bring happiness to a soldier on Christmas Day by way of a Christmas present.

To the right of the certificate The Overseas Club states its motives and objects:

'The underlying motive of The Overseas club is to promote the unity of British Subjects the world over. Its chief objects are

1) To help one another
2) To render individual service to our Empire
3) To draw together in the bone of comradeship British people the world over
4) To maintain our Empire's supremacy upon the seas and in the air'

The Royal Over-Seas League, the modern version of the club, describes some of the background of its founding as follows 'The club was founded by Sir Evelyn Wrench who at the time drew up a ‘creed for membership’ and emphasised that the club was:

Non-sectarian
Non-party
Open to women
And non-jingoist

Wrench made it clear that the club aimed to give ‘nations of the Commonwealth a helping hand along the path of freedom and independence’'.

This was found along with other objects relating to the Sayer family across the 20th Century in a skip in Letchworth in 1999.

MakerSir Joseph Causton & Sons Ltd

Maker RolePrinter

MakerThe Overseas Club

Maker RoleIssuer

Date Made1915

Period20th Century (1901-2000)

Place MadeUnited Kingdom,England,Greater London,London

Medium and MaterialsOrganic| Paper

Measurements215 x 135

Named CollectionHitchin Museum

Object TypeCertificate

Object number2020.3.15

Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved