From our ‘Family histories’ section: The Horn Family: ‘Alice Horn’: Courtesy of Diana Jones Nee Horn
This is the story of my Grandparents and their family during WW1. They were, I should think, a typical agricultural family of the period. They had 10 children, 5 sons and 5 daughters:
Alice Horn was born in 1885 and like her older sister Emma she went into ‘service.’ As her postcards home show, she moved around the south of England. She married William Houghton, a groom, in 1913. I remember my Uncle Will as a chauffeur always very smart usually in a bowler hat. He went to fight in WW1, he was in the Army Service Corps, and sent postcards home from France.
In 1918 he wrote to the family at the farm ‘Well i guess you were all pleased with the News that this Show is finished. I can tell you I was and am now looking forward to getting home’ The postcard is of Captain Charles Fryatt who was considered a hero at that time, having been executed in Belgium in 1916:
The transcribed text reads:
17/11/18
‘Dear Mother and Dad. I am well & hope you are all keeping well. Sorry to hear that George was taken Ill. Hope he is getting on alright now also Ted. ‘Well I guess you were all pleased with the News that this Show was finished. I can tell you I was and am now looking forward to getting home. Hope to see you all this Summer. Hope you will like this card. fond love to you all from yours etc Will.’
Will returned to Alice and they lived at 4,Manor Cottages, where I loved to go as a child and took my own children when Alice was elderly.
He wrote another card as he landed back in England on May 5th 1919. He calls Alice ‘My O D W’ my own dear wife, and hopes to see her at the weekend in Faversham. The post card shows a view of the bomb damage in Bury:
The transcribed text reads:
Tilbury Dock, May 5th 1919
‘My O.D.W received yours get what you can on bike sorry could not write before have been on the road all day we were at Tilbury tonight go on to Chatham in the morning. this is a view of the damage caused by the Bombs in Bury will write letter tomorrow love from your etc Will Hope to see you this weekend at Faversham’
‘Mrs A Houghton, 27 Russell St, Leamington, Warwickshire’
The transcribed text reads:
Arras – Jan 3rd 1919
‘Dear Edie Just a P card which I got this morning where I was walking around to whiling the time away waiting to get home thought you would like it. Well at the moment I am not doing a lot but the weather is rotten so don’t want to do much. now the war is over all we want now is to get home. Well we did not have much of a Christmas and New Year came in very dull with the exception of the row we made ourselves. It was the coming in of what is sure to be our home coming year but what time I do not know. Sooner the better well for I am awfully fed up stuck out in this country, best wishes for the New Year love from Will.
Image and text courtesy of Diana Jones Nee Horn