august 1st 1905 unknown to mary elizabeth moore

bath, somerset to keynsham, somerset

7.2 miles

the message

"then my lady will stay in Bath. Then dear Lil I shall lot of chances to be with you much. I feel I darent leave you from my sight for long. The London appoin- I do not think would sute me for long and think I may not be down for years.

Mrs Ted is delighted she says nothing good enough after my past life."

the sender

Sadly there are no clues to the identity of the sender which is a shame because there is a story there.

the recipient

Mary Eliza Moore (1877-?) was the eldest child of John Moore (1838-1891) and Ann Williams (1853-1937). John was a baker.

At the time this card was sent, Mary was working as a parlour maid at The Old Rectory in Keynsham. The census does not reveal who her employer was. By 1911 she was training as a nurse in Edmonton. In 1939 she was in Penzance and was a Nursing Sister of the Community Of St John The Divine, i.e. she was a nun and a nurse. 

Mary did not marry. It has not been possible to definitively identify her death record.

the tree

the places

Bath and Keynsham, Somerset

what the card says to us

The picture is described as Walcot Church, Bath, and it is actually St Swithin's and it is Grade II listed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St_Swithin,_Bath). Bath is where the card was posted.

The message on the card reads as if it is part 2 of a longer message. The handwriting is quite clear, but there are misspellings and incomplete words and missing words. The use of the word "Then" (if it is that word) is unusual.

It sees to be a love letter, although whether the writer is male or female is anybody's guess. Whoever it is, they appear to be in service. We do not know who "My Lady" is. Neither do we know who Mrs Ted is. Perhaps she was also a servant for My Lady. 

The Community of St John The Divine is the order which gave rise to the BBC drama Call The Midwife, although a different name for the order was used. In fact, in 1939, MAry was living with an incapacitated midwife named Frances Turner in Penzance.