The postmark is quite clear - August 23rd 1914 - 19 days after the start of World War 1. It was sent to a Mr.Charles Taylor in Walthamstow, Essex by his sister, Amy.

In the Church records we do have an Amy Louisa Taylor baptised in 1896 (April 5th) and she is the daughter of James & Agnes Jane Taylor - who also have a son Charles Frederick, baptised three years earlier on January 15th 1893. This would put Amy as 18 or 19 in 1914. Additionally, she had a sister, two years older, called Florence May who must have been the ‘Flo’ mentioned in the postcard.

James & Agnes Taylor are shown in the 1891 Census - they were married in 1890 - as living in one of the cottages in the Rockhouse Farm area. They seem to have stayed in Froyle, James dying in 1933 at the age of 71 and Agnes surviving him until her death in 1944 at the age of 77.

As to who Amy’s ‘young man’ was, and whether he survived the 'War to end all Wars' we do not know, but the Church Records do show that on 24th April 1916, Amy Louisa Taylor married Thomas George Tindale at St.Mary’s Church, Upper Froyle.

A happy ending, maybe?

In the early summer of 1999 the Archive was contacted by a family who could well be descendants of the Taylors.