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This postcard from Ewart Davies to his sister, Lydia, turned up in the mail to a Welsh building society, more than 120 years after it was sent. (PHOTO: Instagram/@swansea_building_society_)
Staff at the Swansea Building Society in Wales were astonished to find a 120-year-old postcard among the daily mail.
Henry Darby, the building society’s marketing and communications officer, was excited at the find.
“It’s a little bit spooky, I’m not a huge fan of touching it because it feels like an antique. It feels like it needs to be in Perspex or something,” he told Sky News.
An old picture of a street in Swansea. (PHOTO: Instagram/@swansea_building_society_)
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The postcard’s message reads: “Dear L. I could not, it was not possible to get the pair of these. I am so sorry, but I hope you are enjoying yourself at home. I have got now about 10/- [shillings] as pocket money not including the train fare so I am doing alright. Remember me to Miss Gilbert and John. With love to all from Ewart.”
The postcard is addressed to Lydia Davies.
Henry remains puzzled at how the postcard ended up in their mail.
“We haven’t got to the bottom of how it ended up back in the circulation of the Royal Mail and how it came to us with a stamp that is the best part of 125 years old, it’s got King Edward [VII] on it,” he explained.
Henry speculates that the postcard might have been sent during a house clearance, with the sender believing that the original owner might want it as a keepsake.
“It’s come back into our ownership and we want to make sure it gets to the right place, be it the local archive, or if possible Lydia’s surviving family,” he says.
Swansea Building Society’s communications officer, Henry Darby, with Lydia’s and Ewart’s relatives, (from left) Helen Roberts, Nick Davies, Margaret Spooner and Faith Reynolds. (PHOTO: Instagram/@swansea_building_society_)
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The card, written by a boy called Ewart to his elder sister, Lydia, gained quite a bit of publicity and, after seeing the story, two families came forward and discovered they are related.
Lydia’s great-nieces, Helen Roberts (58) and Margaret Spooner (61) from Swansea, recognised her in the card and so did her great-granddaughter, Faith Reynolds, who had been unaware her relative had siblings.
It led to them meeting Ewart’s relatives who also came forward after reading about the postcard.
Ewart’s grandson, Nick Davies (65), described the postcard and how it brought two branches of the family back together as “extraordinary”.
“It’s like a family reunion, where the only connection you have is a common ancestor dating back to over a 100 years ago.”
He noted that Ewart, who would have been 13 at the time, was “just a schoolboy spending the summer holidays at his grandfather’s house in Fishguard [Wales]”.
SOURCES: BBC.COM, NEWS.SKY.COM, THEGUARDIAN.COM
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