PPM revisits Manchester's Belle Vue amusement park - Picture ...

Just the ticket!
The June edition of PPM could
have been designed for me. Not
only are there the regular features
and ‘one-off’ articles to
arouse the curiosity but, as a
ship-wreck card collector, I am
spoilt with two articles on my
favourite subject.
In John Marks’ article on
the wreck of HMS Montagu, in
considering the number of postcards
he observes “there may,
however, be more” than the 14 he
lists. There certainly are! I have
32 different cards in my own collection
and I was once offered a
collection of ‘over 200 cards of
the Montagu by a dealer but
declined the
Pick of the Postbag
offer as I felt I had
enough representative cards of
the wreck. I did obtain a book
called “The Loss of HMS Montagu,
Lundy 1906” by G.M.
Davis and published by him in
1981. I was attracted to the book
by a review which said it was
illustrated with postcards of the
wreck. Whilst the book is only
59 pages it does have 50 illustrations,
32 of which are postcards
of the wreck and two are postcards
of HMS Duncan, a sister
ship which grounded herself
whilst trying to assist Montagu.
I was delighted with Bob
Appleton’s article on the loss of
the Targis. The pictures looked
familiar so I immediately went to
my T.B.I. (to be identified) shipwreck
box and, sure enough,
there were the four cards, two as
illustrated, one of the three
lifeboats as described and another
which would seem to be the
one Bob saw on eBay. To remove
one from my T.B.I. box is
encouraging; to remove four at
once is exceptional!
Now to the one where my
research can give some more
interesting information. Another
of my interests is the depiction of
murders on postcards and I
instantly recognised the card at
the top of page 15 as one I
already have. Mine also has the
same scant information provided
by the sender concerning the discovery
of a body. It was discovered
by a group of schoolboys
out for a walk with their teacher
on 20th February 1908 and was
that of Miss Emma Sherriff, a
lady of 36 years of age who had
been missing from her lodgings
in Boscombe since the 18th. The
accused man referred to was one
Frank McGuire, with whom
Emma had formed a romantic
attachment unknown to his
mother, who was a close friend
of Emma. Frank was in the Army
but then both his mother and
Emma lost all contact with him
for about eighteen months. He
had apparently deserted and was
acting as a sales agent for art
works under an assumed name.
He got into financial difficulties
and contacted Emma unexpect-
edly in January 1908 asking if he
could come to stay. Emma made
arrangements for him to stay at
her lodgings and informed his
mother. Whilst staying there
there is evidence that he took
cash and jewellery from Emma
which she found after he had left.
She tackled him about it and he
promised to return it but there
followed a few days where he
travelled to and from London not
telling anyone the correct details
of his whereabouts. When
Emma’s body was found she had
apaprently been beaten to death
and died from internal bleeding.
Frank was arrested in London
and tried at Winchester Assizes.
The jury could not agree on a
verdict and the then Attorney
General later decided not to proceed
with a retrial on the basis of
undeclared new evidence.
The whole story of the case
is covered in a chapter in Nicola
Sly’s book “Dorset Murders”
and it remains an unsolved case.
Alan Savory
Bournemouth
Semaphore captioned
PPCs, post 1914
I was very interested in Allan
Hughes’ letter showing that the
semaphore writer continued to
write picture postcard captions
after 1914. My June 1996 PPM
article showed that
Bender/PP&P Co printed the
semaphore captioned cards up
to 1914. I noted there that both
Bender and PP & P Co. disappeared
after 1914.
Since writing the 1996
article, the 1901 and 1911 Censuses
have been published and
show that Joseph and Nicholas
Bender were German nationals,
living in England. This would
account for the Bender company
“The Photo Printing & Publishing
Co” disappearing suddenly
after 1914. The whole of
the Bender business interests
would have been confiscated
by the Custodian of Enemy
Property and would have been
offered/sold to a British national.
This could have happened
immediately in August 1914.
(It seems that at that time keeping
the business going was the
main concern).
Allan Hughes’ letter shows
that somebody did buy the
Bender/ PP & P Co. business
and other Bender interests and
continued to employ the Semaphore
caption writer. I do not
know whether we will ever find
out who bought the Bender
interests in 1914, as the rich
source of material from The
British Journal of Photography
seems to dry up on this front. It
is now clear that there were two
parts to the Bender story, pre
and post 1914
George Webber
St. Peter Port
Going football crazy
I recently obtained six comic football postcards by an unknown (to
me) artist whose initials are 'D.B.M.'. I am assuming this is a set,
although there are no numbers on the reverse or, indeed, any pictorial
publisher's emblem or other information, apart from the wording
M. WANE & Co. EDINBRO' in the bottom lefthand corner of the
back of the postcard. None are postally used but, I imagine, these
were produced sometime in the early 1900s. I have searched through
the UK PUBLISHERS INDEX and ARTISTS' INDEX of your
invaluable 2010 PICTURE POSTCARD ANNUAL, but can't find
any reference to the publisher or artist of my six coloured comic
football postcards - see scan of one of these attached. Maybe a PPM
reader can throw some light on who the artist 'D.B.M.' is and/or the
printer/publisher M.WANE, EDINBRO' ?
Bryan Horsnell
Reading
Pick of the Postbag
is sponsored by
Boxhill Postcards
We are interested in
buying UK
street-scene and
road-transport RPs.
Collections or singles
Lists to graham@boxhillpostcards.co.uk
RPs only please
PPM on Tour
Melvyn Brooks from
Karkur, Israel, took to
the skies with PPM
recently over the
Jezreel Valley, near
Mount Tabor. While
in flight, Melvyn was
obviously reading the
piece in last month’s
PPM featuring the
balloon postcards at
auction!
PPM keeps you in
touch with the
postcard world!
Picture Postcard Monthly July 2010 43