I doubt we will ever know who the person was who wrote to Miss Eva Stewart, or for that matter why they had left Ireland, or the identity of a Mrs. G, who is described as “a lovely person”.
The date the picture postcard was sent is unclear, but I know that the red penny stamp of King George V dates from between 1912 and 1922.*
The message reads, “arrived here alright, and had a good night on boat. I’m just feeling at home here, Mrs. G is a lovely woman, will write tomorrow”.
The house is still there, and is one of those sturdy but modest family homes, which appears on the OS map of 1894 and maybe older.
I cannot find a reference to a Mrs. G for 1911 on the street directories and for now do not have access to those for the rest of the period up to 1922. A search of the later ones will have to wait till I go into Central Ref.
And that leaves so many questions.
The correspondent might have arrived from Ireland to take up a post as a domestic servant, but that is sheer speculation and so very unhistorical, and alternatively Mrs. G might have been the landlady.
The next step will be to trawl the 1911 census, but I fear that will yield nothing.
So that is it, leaving me just to comment on the photograph which many will recognise as the hospital of what was still the Withington Workhouse.
The experts might be able to make something of the car and conjure up a date, but I will leave that to them.
Location; West Didsbury
Picture; picture postcard, circa 1912-22 from the collection of David Harrop
*I await the expert to correct my assertion of 1912-22.
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