As a print manager, I am getting more and more call for large quantities of direct mail, and was thinking of looking further afield for suppliers. I’m keen to establish a contact in Holland or Italy, or any other country you might suggest.
Jason Crane
BluePrint Design & Print

AVisit www.italianprinters.eu for an easy-to-use directory (in English!). Two big Dutch players are Roto Smeets (www.rotosmeets.com) and Theime GrafiMedia Group (www.thiemegroep.nl) – both print direct mail. Others include Hoekman (www.hoekman.nl), and TDS Printmaildata (www.tds.nu) in Rotterdam. Its managing director is Frans Eyckenbroek. Elsewhere in Europe, and only because I’ve had so many Spanish-related queries recently, try Ig2001 (www.ig2001.com), Riva Deneyra (www.rivadeneyra.com, 00 34 91 2089 150), and Quebecor Iberica (www.quebecor.es, 00 34 91 8957 915).

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I am researching the military career of my grandfather Charles Nunn, who was an employee of Pulmans in the first half of last century. The main purpose is to find out why he was awarded the military medal in the First World War. Unfortunately, citations were not kept by the Ministry of Defence or in the National Archives, but my mother remembers seeing a photograph of my grandfather in Pulman’s Gazette – the accompanying text had been torn out and she suspects his service was described in that. Is there an archive of Pulman’s Gazettes?
Dr Anne Baker
Via email

Our resident historian Caroline Archer has had a good old rummage, but reminded me that printers are notoriously bad at keeping archives, especially when one firm takes over another, so, as far as she can tell, there are no archives of Pulman’s. However, she did find features about the firm in inter-war editions of The Caxton Magazine in St Bride Library, where there were also a couple of examples of Pulman work. Try other trade publications of the era, and bear in mind that Pulman’s full trading name was Geo. Pulman & Sons Ltd, The Cranford Press. It traded from Thayer Street, Marylebone, and Wealdstone, Middlesex, so perhaps it would make sense to write a letter to the areas’ local newspapers. But in terms of getting to the bottom of your grandfather’s military medals, your best bets would be the National Army Museum (www.national-army-museum.ac.uk), which has an excellent library, or the Imperial War Museum.