August 25th 1913 JR to Muriel LLoyd Couper nee price

Chepstow, Monmouthshire, wales to holywell, flintshire, wales

192 miles

the message

"Beaufort Arms, Chepstow

Aug 25 1913

Thanks so much for your letter & enclosure about the Tenby Hotel: it will be very useful some time. At present I am enjoying Chepstow so much that I think of staying on beyond the few days I intended especially if the weather continues as glorious as it is now.

I went a picnic to Tintern Abbey with my Monmouth friends on Saturday & motored over to lunch with them yesterday. Have done the Town Gate here this afternoon

JR"

the sender

There are no clues to JR's identity, if it is "JR". Whoever it is appears to be on a form of road trip in South Wales. Also, they know how to use a colon properly, but they are still prone to missing words out.

the recipient

Muriel Lloyd Couper nee Price (1879-1980) was the third of five daughters born to John Lloyd Price (1847-1923) and Elizabeth Eachus nee Hutchfield (1849-1927). Muriel's sisters were Mabel Lloyd Price (1874-?), Gwendoline Lloyd Price (1877-1937), Madeline Lloyd Price (1882-1972) and Helen Lloyd Price (1884-1979). The surname was not hyphenated when the girls were born but in later census returns a hypen appears. The name does not appear to have ever been officially changed.

John Lloyd Price was a magistrate and brewer. Mabel, Gwendoline and Muriel curiously all married engineers. Madeline and Helen did not marry.

Mabel married Tom Bousquet Browne (1874-1965) in 1897 and as well as serving as a Lieutenant Colonel in WW1, he formed a partnership with John Melville James with whom he produced early motor cars between 1896 and 1910 as James and Browne (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_and_Browne). Later To had a similar partnership with Francis Leigh Martineau.

Gwendoline married Samuel Romilly Roget (1875-1952) in 1903. Samuel's grandfather was the original producer of Roget's Thesaurus and Samuel contributed to its continued production as well as working for the British Standards Institute. (https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/)

Muriel married John Duncan Campbell Couper (1876-1962) in 1905. John was a Colonel in the Royal Engineers during WW1 and had a distinguished career as and Engineer. He was the son of John Couper (1836-1918), a consultant surgeon and Helen MacFarlan Campbell (1845-1921).

the places

Holywell, Flintshire, Wales

Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales

what the card says to us

The picture shows Tintern Abbey (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintern_Abbey), a tourist attraction about 5 miles north of Chepstow. The Beaufort Arms in Chepstow is still in business.

JR appears to be on a holiday in South Wales, especially if a trip to Tenby is being considered. The inclusion of a colon, correctly used, in the message suggests a good education as does some of the sentence construction, but there are some missing words. The fact that they "motored" to the Abbey also suggests some degree of privilege for 1913.

The address that the card was sent to is that of John Lloyd Price, the recipient's father. There is no indication as to why that is the case. Also, the card is addressed to Mrs Campbell Couper almost suggesting a hyphen where one does not exist. Muriel was Mrs Couper. Campbell was one of her husband's forenames. Perhaps it was the one he preferred.