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SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: They were the WhatsApp and TikTok of their time, and Edwardian era postcards can provide intriguing beginnings to local history searches, as DAVID MORGAN found out
In the early years of the 20th century, the sending of postcards was commonplace. It wasn’t quite WhatsApp or TikTok, but with sometimes as many as 10 postal deliveries per day in central London, postcards were the social media of their time.
Those cards which survive give a glimpse into that bygone age and are now collectors’ items. Postcard fairs have quite a following. And the images from more than 100 years ago, and the sometimes poignant messages, can transport us through time.
One such postcard caught my eye recently, as it was a view of Wandle Park with its boating lake. Dated 1903, it was sent from West Croydon to a woman, Mavis Boddison, who lived in Pitlake, less than half a mile away. The message on the back was a reminder of a meeting under Big Ben next Saturday…
Who was this woman? Who was Frank who sent the card? What happened to the Boddison family?
The story which emerges is a fascinating one linking together Selhurst Station, Mitcham Fair Green, the White Star shipping line and Peterborough, in Ontario, Canada.
Mystery message: the 1903 postcard, addressed to ‘Mavis Boddison’
The 1904 Croydon Directory confirms the Boddisons at 42 Pitlake. Mrs A Boddison ran a general store from that address, which was right next to the Derby Arms at No44.
A local newspaper search provided the next piece of information about the family. In August 1902, there was a report about a policeman accused of assaulting one of the two men who he arrested for being drunk and disorderly. The witness to the incident was our Alice Boddison of 42 Pitlake.
She was going to bed at around midnight when she heard a scuffle in the street. Looking out of the window she saw the policeman hit the drunk. She provided her eyewitness account to the magistrate.
Directory entry: Alice Boddison’s business address at 42 Pitlake
Another newspaper report, from May 1900, is an account of an inquest into the death of Robert Cowell, a painter who died falling off scaffolding at Shirley House in Shirley. The coroner was informed that Cowell, who previously lived in Sutton, was lodging at 20 Alexandra Road, Selhurst. His landlady was Alice Bottison, described as the wife of Issac Bottison. She told the inquest that he had lodged with her and her husband for eight months.
Since October 1899, Cowell had had only a few days of employment. He left for Shirley at 6.15 in the morning on that fateful day and his accident happened only a couple of hours later. Cowell died of his injuries after three days in hospital.
With the first names of both husband and wife now known, it became easier to track down their marriage. Alice and Isaac Bottison’s wedding was on November 1, 1885, in the parish church of Standon in Hertfordshire. He was 20, she was 19. Her maiden name was Newstead. Isaac’s occupation was given as signalman.
Records from Selhurst Station showed that he began his employment as a signalman there in 1884.
A Census entry from 1911 provided the evidence of the couple’s children. Three were listed. They were named as Mabel Alice, born in 1887, Lily Ada, born in 1889, and William, in 1891. There was, however, no record of a Mavis, the name on the Wandle Park postcard from 1903.
Sad case: the police dropped charges against William Boddison when it ws confirmed he was defending his mother from his abusive father
Family life was difficult for the Boddisons. Isaac started drinking heavily, leading to violent outbursts, not only to his family but to others as well.
In January 1904, Isaac Boddison was sentenced to four months hard labour in Wandsworth Prison for the serious assault of Ethel Puttick. The court heard how he had been drinking heavily before the incident, which occurred in a back alley near their home.
Boddison’s age was given as 38 and, up to that point, he was still employed as a signalman.
In May 1908, he was arrested once more, this time in Mitcham. Boddison gave his address as Fair Green and his occupation as a corn chandler. About 11 o’clock on a Sunday night he was seen and heard by a policeman “making use of the most disgusting language”. The policeman asked Boddison to go home. He refused. Boddison’s face was covered with blood which, he told the constable, had been because he was hit by his son.
The police built up a picture of the evening’s events. Boddison had arrived home drunk. There was an altercation with his wife. William, now aged 16, intervened to stop his father from hurting his mother. The police dropped any charges against him.
Alice Boddison gave evidence in court. She said she was disgusted by her husband’s behaviour and that she frequently had to summon the police to help when her husband became violent. She told the court that he had already spent time in the asylum at Brookwood, being released the previous August.
She had run their business as he hadn’t been able to work for four years. Adding to her evidence, Alice explained that she couldn’t put up with the situation for much longer and that she wanted a separation.
The police constable who arrested Boddison told the court that he had indeed visited the family home several times in response to his wife’s pleas for help.
The magistrates’ chair of the bench, Mr E Densham, ordered Isaac Boddison to be remanded for a week and be kept under the supervision of the prison doctor.
In November of that year, Boddison appeared in court again charged with being drunk and disorderly. This time he was sentenced to 21 days hard labour. Alice was in court once more, saying that a doctor had advised her husband’s relatives that he should be placed in an asylum. The chair of the bench agreed.
Alice Boddison never gave up on her husband, though, and whether through treatment or will-power, somehow he came through his crisis years.
The whole family took a momentous step towards a new life together on April 20, 1911 (so not so long after they’d completed that year’s Census entry), when they boarded the White Star Line ship, Southwark, bound for Canada. Their plan was to resettle in Ontario.
Isaac was now described as a labourer on that year’s Census, Mabel was a dressmaker, Lily worked in a milliner’s shop and William was working for a builder.
Once in Canada, Isaac, who now was in his 40s, found a job as a wire worker (or electrician, as we would say now) with the Canadian Electric Company. He had an unblemished record with them until his retirement. He took up gardening and became a vice president of the local horticultural club.
He died in 1947, at 82. Alice lived to 92, dying in 1958.
Mabel wasted no time in settling to a new life in Canada. She was married in May 1911 at St John’s Church, Peterborough, to Henry Lucas. She had known Lucas for some time, as he was a lodger in their house in Selhurst and he had emigrated with them on the same ship. Their daughter, Gwendoline, was born in June 1912.
William also married soon after arriving in Canada. His bride, Annie, too, was from England. They also settled in Peterborough, having a house just down the road from his parents in William Street. They had two boys, Sidney and Lloyd.
Canadian tragedy: the newspaper report of the collapsed shop which killed five, including Lily
Lily quickly found a job in Turnbull’s millinery and dry goods store at the corner of George and Simcoe Street in Peterborough. She was a popular figure in the business, and was engaged to be married.
Tragedy struck on August 28 1913, though. The front corner of the store was undergoing building maintenance when it collapsed. Five were killed, including two sales assistants. One of them was Lily. She was serving a customer and both women perished in the catastrophe. Lily was 23.
Lily’s mother was in hospital at the time and they delayed telling her about her daughter’s death until the evening of that day, for fear of the news’s effect on her.
Family grave: Little Lake Cemetery in Peterborough
Lily was buried in Little Lake Cemetery in Peterborough, which became the resting place for five of her family. Her mother and father were subsequently buried there, as was her sister Mabel, who died in 1973 and her husband Henry, who died in 1959.
But what of Mavis and Frank and their planned meeting under Big Ben? Nothing in the family history ever mentioned a Frank.
Did he get the name wrong, writing Mavis when he meant Mabel? Did Miss Bottison deliberately give him a wrong name because she wasn’t that keen on him? Did she go to the planned rendezvous?
We may never know.
But just the address on the postcard has certainly unlocked an amazing family saga. From Selhurst to Pitlake to Peterborough across the Atlantic Ocean. You never know where you might end up in life.
David Morgan, pictured right leading one of his tours, is a former Croydon headteacher, now the volunteer education officer at Croydon Minster who offers tours or illustrated talks on the history around the Minster for local community groups
If you would like a group tour of Croydon Minster or want to book a school visit, then ring the Minster Office on 020 688 8104 or go to the website on www.croydonminster.org and use the contact page
Some previous articles by David Morgan:
- The Town Hall hero of the Great War who ran Croydon’s baths
- Cranmer and Croydon’s part in the Book of Common Prayer
- The church fire that consumed a thousand years of history
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“Worthing Belle” was the name of a paddle steamer, popular in the early 1900s for excursions along the South Coast of Britain, departing from piers like Brighton and Littlehampton. Today, the name primarily refers to nostalgic prints and photographs of this famous steamship, which can be found in historical archives, photo collections, and online marketplaces.
The paddle steamer that for almost one-third of its 41 years was known as Worthing Belle – and held in great affection by the town after which she was named – was built at the Glasgow shipyard of Barclay, Curle & Co in 1885 for the North British Steam Packet Co.
Originally called Diana Vernon, she was one of a number of paddle steamers built for the company over a five-year period. She measured 180 feet in length and was coal-fired.