Horace Thacker married Kitty Webb (formerly Berridge) in 1909. The couple had two daughters. All four are shown on this postcard.

The message on the reverse is 'Wishing you a Happy New Year' and the card is addressed to 'RAMC, Bombay'. The postmark is not readable.

Private Horace Thacker fought in the Cape Colonial Force in the Second Boer War (1902) and signed up for the RAMC Special Reserve for 6 years on 11 August 1914.  On 26 March 1915 he was sent to Egypt and by 1916 he was in the Royal Army Medical Corps in India. This, together with the apparent ages of his daughters in the photographs, makes it likely that, while the postcard was probably sent between 1916 and 1918, the photographs were taken a little earlier.

According to his army service record, Private Thacker was 5' 7¼", 8 stone 6 and had grey eyes and brown hair. He claimed that his occupation before joining up in 1914 was 'blacksmith's striker' (an assistant who wielded the hammer in a smithy). On discharge from the army in December 1919 he was presented with the 'King's Certificate'. Although this document has not survived, it was a standard scroll issued to servicemen released before the end of their term of engagement and would have said: 'No 480413. Pte Horace Thacker, Royal Army Medical Corps. Served with honour and was disabled during the Great War. Honourably discharged on 7 December 1919.' His discharge papers show that his disablement ('debility') was attributable to service in the Balkan theatre of war.

He was unemployed for a while in the 1920s and later ran a newsagent's in Sheffield. He died at the age of 47 within a few days of his wife Kitty's death in June, 1930 (see Archive).