Volunteer Ian Grainge describes his discovery of secret messages on innocent-looking postcards…
In cataloguing part of the Brian Eighteen collection, I came across two postcards with identical text, each to the same recipient, Alic Lovegrove in Caversham, from the same person, ‘Dora’. Both were written within one week of each other, in Summer 1910.
The text is non-committal – ‘I hope we have a nice day tomorrow’ is about as racy as it gets, but where this becomes intriguing is that in each case, the stamp is placed at an exact angle – approximately 45 degrees from the vertical, with the monarch’s head leaning to the left.
Simple research would indicate that such precise positioning of the stamp is sending a message of affection, and, possibly, of the expectation of a future kiss.
Let us hope they enjoyed their tender moment, and also that the postal service (writing today to get there ‘tomorrow’), was more reliable than today.
