IT'S hard to believe that when this Christmas card was first sent, it depicted something so new, most people had never seen one.

But the card, sent by one of the First World War’s most heroic tank officers, was sent 100 years ago and goes on display for the first time, at Bovington Tank Museum.

Elliot Hotblack sent the card from ‘Advance Headquarters Tank Corps’ in December 1917, presumably to his parents in Norfolk.

It includes a print of a crewman waving his cap from a Mark IV tank beneath the words “Christmas Greetings” and was printed especially for the Tank Corps, which was a little more than a year old.

Major-General Hotblack’s heroics feature in The Tank Museum’s ‘Tank Men’ exhibition, but the Christmas card, which includes the Tank Corps’ crest and its battle honours; Somme, Ancre, Arras, Messines, 3rd Ypres and Cambrai, has only just been added to the display because of the centenary.

David Willey, curator of the Tank Museum in Bovington, said: “Hotblack, who became a Major-General, was one of the most extraordinary early Tank Corps officers.

“He was a boys’ own hero of outstanding bravery but also intelligent, very human and caring," he said. "We have an exhibition in which his story is told and he is depicted with a life-size model, and this Christmas card adds another angle to his and the other servicemen’s lives."

Maj-Gen Hotblack was born in Norfolk into a brewing family and was at first an intelligence officer attached to the Machine Gun Corps – the forerunner of the Tank Corps.

He was a pioneer in reconnaissance which led to him often venturing past the front lines without the protection of a tank.

Nicknamed ‘Boots’, Maj-Gen Hotblack was awarded four gallantry medals – including the DSO and bar and Military Cross with bar, was mentioned in despatches five times and was wounded six times. He continued to serve his country after the war and at the start of World War Two commanded the 2nd Armoured Division before being injured and invalided out of the army.

“This small, modest item from the archive gives us a poignant reminder of how our men in the First World War spent their festive period 100 years ago," said David Willey. "We should, and surely can, spare a thought for them and today’s servicemen this Christmas.”