Mystery solved...

Ok….so remember the mystery postcard that I figured was Durban. Nope. Wrong. Totally wrong.

I have the answer and it’s not Durban. It’s Malta! I actually now know more about the photo than I would ever have hoped, and it goes to show that you shouldn’t give up. The internet is a great source of information but this mystery shows that just because something isn’t on the internet one day….doesn’t mean it won’t be there tomorrow.

Where did I start? Well after trawling through the usual picture archives, trying to find out about areas, I came to the conclusion that

1. It wasn’t the UK,

2. It was turn of the century

3. It was a massive parade

4. There were some flags to research

5. The soldiers had tropical type helmets with badges on

6. There was a bridge

7. It probably wasn’t raining.

I’d tried before with no luck to pinpoint the area…without some form of identification it was going to be difficult. There are hundreds of towns with round ponds, churches and squares surrounded by buildings. Turn of the century parades were pretty common too. What worried me about the Durban theory was the lack of a bridge…even though I know urban landscapes change, a bridge usually stays in some form…and Durban didn’t have one (yes I even google-earthed it, and wasted a whole bunch of hours driving and imaginary car up and down the town)

So by now, I was getting pretty fed up. I didn’t think I’d find anything.

There was one solid, identifiable piece of information on the postcard that I knew I could research…. Gyska written on the back of the postcard. Ok, so it was a long-shot…but still!

When I first found the postcard again I typed the word into all the search engines I could think of, and nothing came up. So I left it a couple of weeks and then sat down with an afternoon to spare, determined to find conclusive proof about the picture. As I said… after looking closely I was uneasy about the Durban fit.

Knowing that nothing came up the first time, I typed Gyska into google. And the only thing, apart from the usual gobbledygook and rubbish-that-wasn’t-connected-at-all, that came up was a postcard site of a place in Malta. Hmmm thought I, lets have a look.

I didn’t connect to what I was looking for, although it was the right age, so I looked for early 20^th Century Malta in the postcard site…..and look what came up!

Phoenica Hotel, Malta

 

 

 

 

 

(please visit www.delcampe.net for lots of lovely postcards)

my mystery postcard

So it’s a postcard of the Phoenicia Hotel in Valetta, Malta built in 1939. Recognise the bridge?? Exactly the same. RESULT! The hotel is still there and is a five-star luxury one….very swanky.

It’s a shame to see that the lovely square has been built on, but the “pond” is also there. Without a doubt, this is the same place…even the cracks on the side of the wall by the bridge are the same. So there you have it….a postcard is put on a sales site, it’s up for only a week or two and I managed to find it at the right time. With two days of the auction to go!

So, now I know WHERE the photo was taken. I need to know WHEN and WHY.

Remember I noticed weird cloaked figures in the original picture that looked like headless monks? Did I mention that? We’ll they’re there…one is to the left of the bridge, above a horse. On a whim I decided to enter “Maltese costume” into the search engine…and was led to another postcard site (at this stage I’m just about bowing down and paying homage to the great god of auction sites). Here is the costume I saw in the mystery postcard….it fits completely and the date? 5^th March 1903….not bad eh? I thought that my pic dated around 1904!

Maltese costume

 (This postcard is currently for sale, please visit 

http://www.cardcow.com/155523/costume-maltese-ethnic-postcards/ to see it)

Right…so the time fits, and although this costume in itself doesn’t prove anything, it does show that headless monks weren’t wandering around Valetta (well…not that we know of).

But what could happen around the turn of the C20th to mean a big parade? Well armed with the place and a rough date, we get an answer. Dear friends….King Edward VII visited Malta in April 1903 on his first tour since accession to the throne, and while there he constituted the King’s Own Malta Regiment of Milita, who also happen to have white tropical style helmets with a cap badge. Now, while the Duke of Cambridge seems to have gone ahead of the King, I think we can be fairly certain that such a huge parade, as in the mystery photo, qualifies as a Royal parade. However the regiment that we can see in my photo may be something like this...the Kings Own Royal Regiment. (Im not a military historian but everntually I could find out who they are by the uniforms and the flags)

Below are two photographs from the Kings Own Museum, please visit them and show them support

The Band and Drums of the 1st Battalion lining the route for King Edward VII's visit to Malta, April 1903.
Accession Number: KO0205/06

Band of the 1st Battalion marching up through Floriana, Malta, after lining the streets for His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, 17th March 1903.
Accession Number: KO0085/13 and KO2490/475

I am now 95% sure that what we have is a photograph taken in April 1903 for the King arriving in Malta.

Who the girl is and why she’s on her own….well I may have to make that bit up ;)

Dont you just love a mystery?

Ok....about two years back we visited Tintern Abbey. I love that area, the Wye Valley is a place I hope I can visit again soon, every time we go there's something about the place that draws you in. Anyway...there are a couple of antique shops in Tintern, and one has lovely old postcards for sale. I spent a happy half hour just looking through the old photos of far off places in the dim and distant past, and the portaits of Victorian couples and their children....and I came upon a card that just drew me in.

So, I bought it....put it in a book to keep it flat and then when we came home, not wanting to have the card bent, I put it away for safekeeping. And promptly forgot where I put it.

It's been driving me mad, if you've ever been haunted by the loss of an object you'll know what its been like....until a few days ago when my daughter found it...in a cookery book that I can't remember ever using!

Now this card is a bit special. It's a scene of a military parade. A HUGE military parade....but I had to buy the postcard because of one person in that picture. Amongst the throng of the crowd there is a girl...standing alone....looking directly at the camera. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I can get obsessed, but this girl has really been haunting me. Who is she, why was she there...WHERE was she, and why is she standing there on her own??

After a little bit of research I *think* I know where the photo was taken and when. The dress of the people is Edwardian(ish), there are trams, there are horse drawn carriages, there are tropical trees, a huge square and a garden. There is a church on the left of the picture in the background. Then there are the soldiers and the flags.

I may be wrong, but I think this was a parade around the time of the Boer War through Durban, South Africa. I've come to this conclusion by looking around and found some photos of Durban that may fit the era. The circular "pond" is the same as those in Durban.

But if any of you know any more, or even just want to tell me I'm wrong, please tell me. This scene really is haunting me. Seriously. I need to put a time and a place to this postcard. Two years ago I wrote a "novel" during NaNoWriMo because a snippet from The Times in the 1870s, about a murder in the centre of Paris, had been haunting me in a similar way...I never did find out what happened (but that's another story...literally...I wrote my novel around it and laid the ghost to rest by writing the story).

I may have to do something similar with this....yup....I may have to write the story about "The girl in the crowd". But for the time being....if there is anyone out there who knows the real story I would be very happy to hear it.

So...here's the postcard...and yes I've watermarked it....through bloody-mindedness and not wanting anyone to pinch it (well..it does happen). 
Can you spot her??