I came across this photo which was sent to my grandma, Ida, from her fiancé, later her husband, Reg (William Reginald Matthews). It is post-marked Devizes in Wiltshire and was sent 14th August 1909, the day after his twenty-second birthday. Ida was almost the same age, her twenty-second birthday was the 29th August.
Dear I, have won Scouts Cup, home for about 3 on Sunday, leaving Putney 11-0 am. Will come over to make arrangements about Sunday evening. Cup a nice birthday present to me wasn’t it. WRM.
It’s such a casual, affectionate note, possibly they were engaged at the time, but I don’t know when that happened. This is one of a couple of photos of him on horseback, he was in the army as you see from his uniform, but it was a bitter disappointed to him (although probably not to his family and to Ida) that he wasn’t able to serve during the Great War due to some problem with his chest. They didn’t actually marry until 4th March 1916 and unfortunately it wasn’t a very happy marriage although they had four children and were married for forty-two years until her death in 1959.
Lois Elsden 