At one time we would receive several postcards each summer from family and friends, but these days people prefer to post photos on social media and it can sometimes be difficult to find cards to buy. Fortunately, there are many people still collecting postcards and displaying old cards online. I am one of those enthusiasts, luckily inheriting two albums of Edwardian cards from my grandmother and wartime cards from my mother. I have added to the collection by buying old views of places that are special to me.
Recently a fellow collector sent me an exciting box of 116 postcards dated from 1912 -1920. They are from one family united by the marriage of Nellie Bennett to Albert Grimmette in Camden Town, London in 1915. There are cards from their sisters, brothers, cousins and aunt mainly delightful birthday postcards but also Christmas greetings and holiday cards from the seaside. Some place the stamps at a jaunty angle which conveyed messages such as, “Forget me not.”
The census
records show the Bennett men all worked at nearby St Pancras station as porters
and guards as did Albert Grimmette’s father. Nellie and her sister Kate worked
as needlewomen for Bastin, Merryfield & Cracknell, a well-known supplier of
quality garments to shops in Oxford Street and the girls were provide with
lodgings in Great Portland Street.
Perhaps the
most interesting occupation was that of Albert’s grandfather, George Grimmette,
as a London City Missionary. The London City Mission in Kentish town was one of
several evangelistic organisations helping the poor and needy in London in the
late 19th century.
If you think you might be descended from this family please have a look at the tree on Ancestry
and contact me.
