Pigeon service message book : British Army

British Army Pigeon Message Service Book which slots into a heavy cardboard cover, protected with black leatherette. The front cover is stencilled in white 'ARMY BOOK 418. PIGEON SERVICE MESSAGE BOOK.' The ends of the cover are held together by a black elastic strap. The inside of the front cover bears a list of eleven printed instructions for both the use of the book and the message format to be used, as well instructions on the treatment of pigeons, conditions under which they should be released, and method of attaching the messages. At the bottom of the instructions is 'W12345-M1245 5000 1/17 HWV Books 418-3 (E.2930)'. There are two leatherette tubes on each side of the inside back cover to take a writing stylus. Both are missing. The message book itself is arranged in pages of three: The top flimsy sheet is printed with space for the message itself, for the address of the recipient and sender, number and date of message, place of despatch, sender's signature, time of despatch, time of arrival at loft, and the number of copies sent. The latter refers to the instruction that two identical messages should be sent one minute apart if possible. The second sheet is of carbon paper, allowing the original message to be transferred to a third sheet of heavy paper, which is retained in the book for record keeping. Both the flimsy paper and carbon paper have perforated top edges to allow them to be easily detached.

This standard British Army Pigeon Message Service Book was issued to Australian army units during the First World War.