Where There's Dirt There's Danger!

Last Saturday I picked up this handy booklet produced by the Health and Cleanliness Council in 1929. The Council was created with the aim to propagate health and cleanliness (Journal of Nursing 1929) and this pamphlet was one of many the Council produced.

Contained are useful tips on how to wash lace curtains, make soap jelly, and how to teach kids to blow their noses thoroughly so they won't suffer later on in life!

Some advice I think I will not follow in 2012 include the following...

Carpets should be brushed each day with a soft brush, and once a week with a hard brush, first sprinkling with tea-leaves which have been well washed and are slightly damp, to prevent the dust from rising.

A good tooth-paste is, of course, of great benefit, but if you have no toothpaste, just rub your brush on the soap tablet. Soap will cleanse and brighten the teeth excellently and benefit the gums too.


The best thing about this pamphlet is the logo and quite scary slogan...

Where There's Dirt, There's Danger!

Argghhh!

A Reunion of St-Pierre - Albert Prefontaine and Adhemar Renuart

A few years ago, I was sent a lovely old postcard from Winnipeg, Canada, to add to my small collection of old Winnipeg postcards. The postcard was found on a dusty bookshelf in a junk store in Winnipeg and my friends, knowing I liked old cards, translated it from French into English and popped it in the post for me to enjoy and research.

The research has grown and grown thanks to Marcel Victor Prefontaine, the great-great-grandson of one of the people mentioned in the postcard, who has given me so much information I felt that it should get a new post!

One of my big questions was when was it sent?

Here is the original postcard:

And here is what it says:

5th September - My Big Girl (as in a daughter who is no longer a child by looked at tenderly - contrary to an English father who might refer to even their grown daughter as his "little girl", a French-Canadian father would refer to such a child as his "big girl" since a petite-fille is actually the term for grand-daughter). My tour of Belgium completed, after returning to Paris Saturday, I left for Arras. Arriving at the train station of this place (Arras) I met Albert Prefontaine and Adhemar Renuart accompanied by their wives; you can imagine the exclamations! It was St-Pierre (the people of that town and not St-Peter the apostle)that was reuniting. After stopping at our rooms we took a car and went to Wancourt, first off, to the Priest (cure, spelled with a capital "C" as would have any good French-Canadian Catholic of the time, to denote respect for his position) who knew not what to do to receive us as best he could - the poor soul! Wancourt having been completely destroyed, he has for/as...
Translation by  Marcel Victor Prefontaine

So what can we learn from just this one postcard?

The writer of the postcard is surprised to bump into two other residents of St Pierre at the train station in Arras, France. This is indeed something worth being surprised about, seeing that St Pierre was, and still is, a small community south of Winnipeg, Canada.

So, how can this help us date the postcard?

Well, according to history blurb on St Pierre's, now renamed St-Pierre-Joly's, website (http://www.stpierrejolys.com/profile/history.shtml), the town was founded in the 1870s and changed from St Pierre to St Pierre Jolys in 1922. We can, therefore, deduce the postcard was written before 1922. But there is more...


Arras and Wancourt

We understand from this postcard that Wancourt has been completely destroyed. This, therefore, dates the postcard to somewhere between 1918-1922 as Wancourt and Arras were scenes of ferocious fighting in World War 1.

A Sad Journey

Marcel Victor Prefontaine tells me that Albert Prefontaine, one of the men mentioned in the postcard, had a son, Aurele Prefontaine, who sadly died on 27th August 1918, aged 21, while fighting in World War 1 near Arras, and is buried in Wancourt. And it was because of this that Albert Prefontaine, his wife and Adhemar Renuart and his wife were there. Marcel Victor Prefontaine has found a reference to Albert Prefontaine's visit to France in a book written in the 1970's called ”Pages de souvenirs et d’histoire - la paroisse de Saint-Pierre-Jolys au Manitoba”:

"This village of the Pas-de-Calais (region) which now counts barely more than 300 inhabitants, had the honor of receiving, the 4th of September last, guests having traveled from Canada.

It was first Mr. l’abbe Jolys (the priest of the community of St-Pierre, Manitoba at the time was father Jean-Marie Arthur Jolys), the zealous and sympathetic founder and priest of the flourishing parish of St-Pierre.  It was also Mr. & Mrs. Albert Prefontaine who were accompanied by Mr. & Mrs. Adhemard Renuart, all four parishioners of Mr. Jolys, and of the best.

The reason for their visit to this small corner of our Artois was a long-planned religious ceremony: it was the benediction of the magnificent banner of the Sacred-Heart donated by Mr. Prefontaine to the church of Wancourt in memory of his son, Aurele, who was killed in action in Wancourt the 30th of August 1918 and who is buried in the British cemetery of the area, located towards Cherisy.

At 3 in the afternoon, Mr. Jolys solemnly blessed the banner of the Sacred-Heart and we went off, in procession, to the cemetery, to Aurele Prefontaine’s tomb, where we sang the “De Profundis” for the soul of this valorous soldier and for the souls of his 1800 companions who rest to his sides.

The priest of St-Pierre spoke for a few instants,...It is by a sacrifice of extraordinary greatness that France was saved.  Victims, all these soldiers harvested in the flower of their youth; victim, this young Aurele who, wounded fatally on the front, exclaimed: “Mon Dieu!” (My God!), last words that sum up a Christian and chaste life."


On a happy note, Marcel Victor Prefontaine tells me that Albert's daughter Edith married Adhemar's son Denis in November 1919 - a happy union after such terrible sadness.

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The Pussy Cat Willum

A while ago a relative gave me an old book about a cat called Willum. As I like old books and cats, I was most pleased with the gift. Little did I know what a gem this book would be because it contained wonderful drawings and stories about the adventures of a very nice cat that lived in 1960s England.

Willum was a glove puppet that would make an appearance on a children's show called 'Small Time'. He was quite a special puppet cat because it seems he had many professions - some glamorous, some not, and some straight out of the 60s.

So...here are some of his adventures...

Willum the Barrow Boy

Willum the Lord

Willum the Dustman

Willum the Newspaperman

Willum the Zoo Keeper

Willum the Milkman

Willum the Coalman

Willum the Movie Star

Update on Winnipeg Postcard - Albert Prefontaine

Please see my new post:

click here

Extra-Curricular Photographic Postcards

Just dug out this old badge from when I was a child. It was attached to me when we went on a school trip to the zoo. I remember seeing the elephants, but I am not sure if it is because I was delivered there like a lost parcel!

On the topic of young pupils and extra-curricular activities, I have re-posted this exquisite photographic postcard I found a while ago (click here for original post). I have tried to name all the characters, but I am still not sure about a few. If you recognise any, please let me know!

Lastly, here is a recent acquisition from a postcard fair. Apologies to those who would prefer not to be reminded of the dreaded medicine ball, but it really is a splendid picture. What I particularly love is the row of umbrellas in the background. It reminds me of shivering on the hockey pitch as the rain dripped down my face! Oh happy days!

Thanks to Sepia Saturday for the inspiration!

Climbing in the Lake District in the 1930s

About a month ago I picked up these wonderful photographs of a climbing meet in the Lake District in the early 1930s. They show the kind of group walking/climbing meets that were organised at that time. Some were organised by climbing clubs and others were organised by holiday organisations. These kind of group holidays were often where young people were first introduced to the sport and where they got to rub shoulders with people from the serious climbing clubs, such as the Alpine Club (founded 1857), the Rucksack Club (founded 1902), Fell and Rock Climbing Club (founded 1907), and the women-only Pinnacle Club (founded 1921).

Often people would take the train at the end of the working week and head up to the Lake District by train. Often friends would meet on the train and get a taxi together to the hostel where everyone would be staying.

Wasdale Head

It is interesting how there was still a mix of climbing clothing in this period. Serious women climbers were certainly wearing shorts by this time or tweed knickerbockers. By the 1930s climbers were also experimenting with rubber soles and shoes on the serious rock faces.

Lunch at Wasdale and on the summit of Scawfell

Written on the back of the photographs is Wasdale and Scawfell, both important in the history of English mountaineering. The small village of Wasdale lies within reach of several notable climbs: Scafell Pike, Sca Fell, Kirk Fell, Great Gable, and Pillar, all where many notable climbers cut their climbing teeth so to speak.

 

Napes Needle

The final photographs show what one is supposed to do on a summit. After wondering around for a bit, have a rest with your tobacco pipe and write about one's adventures in a climbing diary. Perfect.

Kenneth

Winnie Tuke and Fred Tate - Family and Holidays in the 1920s

Winnie Tuke

Fred Tate?

A few weeks ago a lovely lady at a car boot fair who shares a common interest in mountaineering history sold me two photograph albums that appear linked. One was made by Winnie Tuke and the other family photo album includes a famous cricketer called Fred Tate. Both albums are lovely records of family life in the early twentieth century. I have selected some photographs from these albums to accompany some historical snapshots of the period.

1914-1918 The Great War
WW1 affected a great many people in the UK in many different ways. Unquestionably, the most traumatic aspect of this war was that it completely removed a generation of young men and left survivors horrifically injured both physically and mentally. Everyone knew someone who had died or been horribly injured. As for the survivors, their experiences were boxed away and family, friends and good times were a great distraction from the horrors etched in their memories. For the women who were left as war broke out, their lives changed dramatically. Some were plunged into poverty as their line of income stopped, and many were thrust into work for the duration of the war. For many women, the war brought nothing but suffering, but for many, it was liberating and almost certainly an catalyst to the suffrage and equal rights movements that followed.

Seaside Holidays
Paid vacations in the 1920s were almost unheard of, and the concept of a long break or annual leave was something that had to be saved for. This can be seen by the number of marriage ceremonies  conducted on Christmas Day - the one day in the year which was a holiday for everyone! Turning to the seaside as a holiday destination, with the development of trams and the railways, families were able to get away to the seaside more easily than before. Middle class families often preferred quieter beaches and would avoid Sunday seaside shenanigans when everyone and anyone swamped to the coast to get the most out of their day off (Horn, 1995).

Horn, P (1995). Women in the 1920s. 

People's Friend Annuals 1950s

I picked up some old annuals from the 1950s at a car boot fair yesterday. I made a beeline for them because I thought they would help me understand how the 1950s woman thought she should behave and what she was 'supposed' to read. Aimed specifically at the older woman, each book has about 20 short stories of love, friendship, boredom, and all the stuff a good 1950s housewife or single lady needed to reflect on. Apparently some people collect these annuals just for the old adverts in them (will post these soon), but I really love the illustrations. Here are some...

3 Families from 3 Countries

Following on from my last post about a pamphlet on family health, I decided to blog about 3 photographic postcards of different families. They are all photographic postcards, all split back and all taken around the same time (1920s or 1930s). The really interesting thing is that they were taken in different countries and show normal lives that would inevitably change when WW2 began in 1939.

Canada

This photographic postcard was sent to me by a friend in Canada who collects all sorts of old photos and ephemera. It shows what looks like 3 generations of a family in the woods. The back is clear with no writing, but there is an AZO design for where the stamp should be placed. According to the website www.edinphoto.org.uk,this Kodak stamp design means we can date the photo to the period 1927-1940.

Germany

The next photographic postcard was taken in Germany. Unlike the card before, this does have writing on the back. So what was life like in Frankfurt in 1925? Well, it looks rather cold from the photograph. I found some old film footage from 1927. I can imagine them walking around the city.

United Kingdom

My final photographic postcard was taken in the UK. It is a rather jolly photograph and is just exactly what you would want in an old English photo: a garden, a cup of tea and some biscuits! As there is nothing written on the back, I am guessing the photo was taken in the late 1920s or early 1930s. This is one of my most recent finds, and one I just couldn't resist as it captures such joy.

Photographs as Postcards - some 'off-topic' gems

Thanks to a friend of mine who has recently started collecting postcards, I was out of control at a recent postcard fair because I found myself off-topic as I showed her all the different categories! Most postcard collectors attend the fairs looking for very specific cards, and normally so do I. This is always good for the purse as it helps one control oneself and means you actually get out of the fair with some hours left in the day. I secretly like going off-topic as it is often these finds which make me smile or send me off on some research.

My favourite off-topic finds are often the 'real photo' postcards created with special cameras which produced photos onto postcard paper for sending. These postcards usually show family life or record important events and were meant to be shared just like digital photos today.

Here are some of my favourites:

I wish I could have seen this play based on nursery rhymes. The kid with the beard and the one with the paper bag on his head are brilliant!

I actually have the name of every pupil written on the back of this card. I love the grumpy girl (middle row, left) and the ones who just could not stand still!

A bit of adult theatre here. I know the women are dressed as men, but are the men dressed as women?

A walk in the woods. I love the confidence of the front couple.

A walk in the snow. I really like the clothes they are wearing, especially the boots and socks - ready for some mountaineering!