Postcards from my collection

I hope you enjoy this set of postcards sent from Charlie to Maudie in 1904. There is a previous post about Charlie and Maudie here. 

Dear Maudie, I'm sure this sweet set will please you. très bon! With love Charlie

Dear Maudie, only 7 weeks to Easter!!! It’s pouring with rain again and I’ve been playing all the funeral marches I’ve got to cheer me up. It seems like sacrilege to play anything more lively in Godalming. Metcalf has just started on an eight mile tramp through the mud, so we’re all happy. Adieu pour joyous! Charlie. 

Dearest Maudie, I was quite overwhelmed with gratitude to receive such a beautiful card from you this week. It’s too kind of you and I shall never forget it. (You don’t mind me mentioning that I had that one already, do you?) Easter is getting nearer and nearer. Doesn’t the tempus seem to fugit?  Metcalf went to a dance last week he can’t dance, so he wallflowered and talked scandal with all the other old women. With love, Charlie.

Dear Maudie, the C. M. will do very well, thank you. I haven’t quite decided yet what I shall send you when this set is finished. I’m not going out at all on Monday, as I’m sure to be in great demand. Who is the luckless wight you mean to fix? Love Charlie. 

Dear Maudie, only four weeks to Easter! I suppose it wasn't you who wrote to Metcalf on the 29th? He didn't have a chance of accepting, as he could not recognise the writing. Isn't the weather simply lovely? With Love Charlie. 

Dear Maudie, this is the last of this sweet set. How quickly the time does go, doesn't it? With love, Charlie.

The six cards featured here were sent to Maudie at her Brighton address, whilst the set in the previous post were sent to an address in Hove

 I have an earlier set sent in 1903 to addresses in Guildford and London.

The clues on the postcards proved too tempting to ignore, and a little online searching revealed the following;

Maude Alice (Maudie) Anscombe was born in Brighton, Sussex, England in 1884 daughter of Henry Anscombe and Alice Anscombe née Hacker. Henry and Alice also had a second daughter Gertrude Mary (Gertie) born three years after Maude. Sadly, Gertrude died a few months after her fifth birthday in 1892. I don’t know the cause of death, although it may be reasonable to assume it was influenza.  The first great flu pandemic to be widely recorded was the Russian flu of 1889–1893, which returned annually until 1901. In Great Britain, the winters of 1891 and 1892 were the worst. The epidemic was characterised by huge morbidity. In 1891, 125,000 died from influenza, and in 1892, there were 250,000 flu deaths in Great Britain. Brighton suffered with exceptional severity. 

When Gertie died the family were living at Belmont Villa, Prestonville Terrace, Brighton.  Henry was employed as the assistant manager at the Gas Works, Croydon, London. Which may explain the London address on one of the postcards. Is it possible the family had a London home and a home in the country?

1901 finds the family still living at Belmont Villa, Brighton. They now employ a servant (Mabel Whyborn born in Worthing, Sussex). Sometime between 1901 and 1911, they move to 2 Granville Road, Hove, Sussex. Maud is now 27, unemployed, unmarried and living at home with her parents. 

1915 sees an interesting development when a Miss Maude A Anscombe marries a John W Metcalf at Steyning in Sussex and in 1922 they have a child - John A Metcalf. (The registration of birth records his mother’s last name as Anscombe.)

Did Maude choose 'Metcalf' over Charlie?  It certainly looks that way.  

Maud died in Guildford, Surrey in 1971 and approximately 30 years later I purchased her postcards from an auction. There is obviously a lot more to this story, and I hope to delve further as time permits.

Do you have any thoughts or questions? I would love to hear from you.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday 285 : Postcards / Hotels / Buildings

Please pay a visit to Sepia Saturday for more postcards, hotels and buildings.

Source documents

Postcards as described above.

Census records 1891, 1901, 1911.

Birth, marriage, death and parish records.

East Sussex Family Database.