This postcard was with a collection of photographs handed down to me from the family of my fathers’ Uncle Albert (Albert Burnett 1884-1963). It is, in fact, both a photograph and a postcard – the use of “real photographs” to create postcards was common in the early year of the twentieth century. The photograph shows one of the stores owned by the grocer, Thomas Seymour Mead, somewhere in the Manchester area.
The card was sent in 1909 to Mrs Burnett of 42, Bell Lane, Northfield, Nr Birmingham (this would be Rose Ellen Burnett (Lane), Albert’s wife). The message reads as follows:-
| Dear Rose, I was pleased to hear from you. I am looking forward to seeing you at Christmas. Remember me to Ivy, tell her I will send her an umbrella. I hope you are all “in the pink”, remember me to Albert. How do you like PC? I did laugh when I got your letter about St Georges Hall. Best Love, Brother Charles. |
Albert and Rose were living in Birmingham where Albert was learning his trade as a motor coach builder. By the time of the 1911 census they had moved to Manchester and Albert was a partner in a motor body building business, Jones Bros & Burnett. At the time of that census, Charles lane was living with his sister and brother-in-law at 18, Hatton Street, Lower Broughton, Salford, Manchester. His occupation is listed as a “Grocers’ Assistant” which suggests that he was one of the young assistants featured in the photograph which went to make up the postcard he sent to Rose in 1909.
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