Hi all,
It took several weeks for the conservator to get on with my postcard but I now have it back. Just as a reminder to the earlier messages, I bought this postcard at auction but it had been glued, image side down, to a backing sheet. The first thing to say is that there was a bit of a surprise, when the postcard was finally revealed, in that it did not have the expected image of the Titanic. I have posted photos below but you can see that it has Lake District scene. Presumably the sender already had this postcard with him. I've now got over my slight disappoitnment at this and decided that it is actually quite charming that the postcard was purchased elsewhere.
As you can see, the postcard is signed only "Edward". There were over 30 Edwards onboard the Titanic, over two thirds of whom were crew members. I've been through them all fairly carefully using the very helpful biographical information on this website and have identified the one whom I think the most likely to have been the sender. This man is Edward Brown (1878 - 1926), a steward to
first class passengers. He is quite a well known figure in the record. He survived the sinking, having spend some hours in the water before being picked up by a lifeboat. He is known to have helped passengers into lifeboats and, according to some accounts, may have been the last man to see the captain alive. He was one of those called to give evidence to the official enquiry.
The reasons I think that he may be the sender of the postcard are circumstantial - but reasonably convincing.
Edward Brown is the only Edward onboard who originated from North Wales. He was born and raised in Holyhead on the island of Anglesey. Bangor, to where the postcard is addressed, is just on the other side of the Menai Bridge on the Caernarvonshire coast. Edward Brown's parents are known to have married in Bangor and so they may have had family connections there. At the 1911 census, the address to which the postcard was sent was occupied by one Richard William Hughes, his wife, Kate, their four daughters (aged between 15 and 24) and their one son. None of the daughters is recorded as being called Amy but one is registered on the census as "Nanna", which sounds like a nickname, and another has the middle inital "A". Either of those could be the Amy to whom the card was sent. Alternatively, I guess, Amy may have been a relative who was not living with the Hughes family in 1911 but had moved in with them by 1912. Richard William Hughes, his wife and the three eldest children were all born in Holyhead - again, suggesting the possibility of a family or friendship link with Edward Brown and his family.
Unfortunately, when Edward Brown signed on as a cew member on the Titanic, he signed only "E. Brown". It is not therefore possible to make a particularly accurate comparison of his handwriting with that on the postcard. Nevertheless, one can see from the images at end below, that the handwriting is really quite similar - particularly the letter "E". On the other hand, the capital "B" is very different although this may be explained by Edward using fancier capital letters in his signature than in his regular handwriting, which is something that lots of people do.
All-in-all it's a bit of a tease. I shall continue to see whether there is more information and if you can shed any light on it, please do let me know. It may be though that it will never be possible to know for sure who was the sender of the card.
David