Far from Love Farm, somewhere in Egypt in the February of 1916 with a correction to Low farm

I wonder what Ethel made of this postcard from Egypt.

It was sent to her at Love Farm in Barmston, near Driffield in Yorkshire in February 1916.

I don’t know if the chap who sent it was her brother or sweetheart but either way his main concern was what was going on at the farm and sadly there is no comment on what he thought of Egypt.

The message was written in pencil and has faded with the passing over nearly a century so it is difficult to work out what he is worried about and all but impossible to make out his name.

But he writes of “thinking I shall have to be back again,” and asks if the parcel arrived.

And I doubt that we will ever find out more.

Ethel’s surname is obscured by the army and censor stamps and I can‘t even be sure from the handwriting that Love was the name of the farm.

Today Barmston is a small village specialising in tourism and faced by encroachments from the North Sea.
There is one farm listed just outside the village and in the fullness of time I will try to track our Ethel down.

But for the meantime I shall return to that picture which I guess must have caused a bit of a stir as it passed from the local post office and out to the farm in the hands of the postman.

And of course I bet there is a story behind the picture.  It was taken in a studio and the message on the back is in French.

But there is no company name just the code L.C.-198.  So it too will be impossible to track down.

All of which might suggest that this all a bit of a non story, but it does serve to remind us that the Western Front was not the only theatre of war and that some of our young men passed their time far from Yorkshire fighting not the Germans but the Turks.

It comes from a remarkable collection which David Harrop has collected some of which will be on view at two exhibitions during the summer.**



And some times it does well to share the story first with a friend.  Had I shown it to my friend Jean I might have got the spelling of the farm correct because she suggested it might be Low farm and on that basis searched out a name.
"Do you think the girl might have been:

Ethel Mary Wilson, born 1901 in Barmston.
In 1901 living with her family at a Farm in Barmston - entry 19, entry 16 is Low Stonehills Farm

In 1911 aged 10, living with her brother Harry, aged 16 - Assisting on Farm. Postal address: Barmston, Driffield"

Now that makes sense.

Picture; from the collection of David Harrop

*David Harrop, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/David%20Harrop

**The Atkinson, Lord Street, Southport from July 28 and Oldham Archives, Union Street, Oldham, from August 4