Sam Cook, originally from Liverpool, served as a gunner with the Royal Field Artillery during the First World War. He was engaged to Mary Annie Symmons (neé Hughes) of Llanelli, and they married in the town on 30 June 1917 - he was 39 and she was 38. He was killed in action on the Western Front less than a month later, on 24 July 1917. As this card from France is addressed to 'Mrs Cook', it must have been sent in that four week period.