Stamp Collector

88 MAY 2020 www.allaboutstamps.co.uk Before the constant use of telephone, fax machine, and text message, the humble postcard fulfilled various roles, as shown here by postal historian Dane Garrod The pride of Lyons COVER EXPLAINED I t is fortunate that some family correspondences have survived. Perhaps not treasured or particularly cared for in later years, they surface upon a death and enter the world of collectors and historians. Most are then dispersed into groups or single items, as these illustrated items here were, whereas others enter museums or similar institutions. Not all of these relate to families of wealth or land ownership, but it appears that a majority do, simply because they have the facilities for long term storage. The Tollemache family (pronounced TOL-mash) had various branches, one of which owned Hintlesham Hall in Suffolk. One descendent, Ralph William Lyonel Tollemache was of lesser means. As a Rector he managed to marry twice, and had fifteen children, as well as having pride with his third given name, Lyonel. His bizarre actions began with adding a second surname to his first, by duplication and with a hyphen, hence Tollemache-Tollemache. This continued with a pride of ‘Lyons’ where he named many of his children with adaptations of that part of his name. Hence, sons Lyonel and Lyonulph, and daughters Lyonesse, Lyona, Lyonella and Lyonetta. If that was not enough of an inheritance to bear, many had numerous given names before the surname, Lyona having seventeen. From Edwardian times and later, the family of the eldest ‘Lyon’, Sir Lyonel Tollemache, 4th Baronet – not surprisingly, he or his children didn’t bother with his duplicate surname – retained family letters and postcards. His eldest daughter was Beryl, and here shown are two postcards from Europe to her at the family home in Eastbourne, one being from Aunt Lyona, she of the seventeen given names. The postmark reads ‘WIEN / 1 / 10.4.03 / 9-10 N’, and with no arrival handstamp in England we can surmise that the journey by rail and sea from Austria took only a few days. She writes ‘Lyonella and I are having a holiday now’ and signs off ‘Aunt Lyona’ to her sixteen year old niece Beryl. The carmine stamp has been applied upside down, still a treasonable offence in the United Kingdom if the monarch’s portrait, but that’s another story for another time. Rated at 10 heller, the portrait is of the long reigning Emperor Franz Joseph I. Three years later in 1906, Beryl receives a postcard from a friend in Paris with a French name, Y. Meily, that invites her to respond by saying ‘I hope to receive a letter & in French from you soon’. It would appear that two young women are practising a foreign language by correspondence. What was termed in the past as a ‘pen friend’. The stamp is also carmine, rated at 10 centimes and showing the Sower design with the sun-rays. The postmark ‘PARIS / GARE ST. LAZARE’ confirms travel was by rail, and although the year is ‘06’, the date and time is uncertain due to what appears to be a worn handstamp, rather than poor application. Has Beryl left her mark on history and life in general? Well, indirectly she has. Born in August 1887, she never married. Her life may have been short – she died aged 56 years in June 1944 – but she undertook much good work for the communities in which she lived. After her death, and in 1949, her parents Sir Lyonel and Lady Tollemache gifted a lifeboat to Eastbourne which was named ‘Beryl Tollemache’. Launched 176 times, she saved 154 lives in front-line service until May 1977, and was then in use for tours to Coquet Island off Amble in Northumberland. A worthy remembrance of a woman who helped others, as her lifeboat certainly did. Beryl Tollemache lifeboat