Streatham High Road Prior to 1903 - a photo on Flickriver

Streatham High Road Prior to 1903

            The Postcard

A postcard that was published by Stengel & Co. of Dresden and Berlin. The photograph shows Streatham High Road looking north towards central London. The junction with Sunnyhill Road is on the right.

The pub on the left is still there, and is now called The White Lion. It looks much the same as in the photograph, although all the fabulous hanging lights are no longer there. Also the etched glass windows have been replaced with clear plate glass.

The card was posted on Monday the 31st. August 1903 to:

Miss Fayers,
Great Street Farm,
Trimley St. Mary,
Suffolk.

The recipient's name and address stretch across the undivided back of the card.

Arthur Godfrey

So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?

Well, the 31st. August 1903 marked the birth in Manhattan of the American broadcaster Arthur Godfrey. Arthur died in 1983.

Achille-Claude Clarac

The day also marked the birth in Nantes, France of Achille Claude Clarac, also known as Claude Clarac. Claude was a French diplomat.

Claude studied law, and entered the foreign service in 1930. In 1934 he became embassy secretary in Tehran, where he married, in May 1935, the Swiss writer and photojournalist Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908-1942).

He was Consul of France in Tehran until 1942.

Before World War II Claude was employed in Washington, DC. From the 31st. March 1955 to the 2nd. November 1956 he was French ambassador to Syria in Damascus. From 1959 to 1968 he was French ambassador to Thailand, based in Bangkok.

Claude was made "Chevalier" de la Legion d'Honneur in 1946 and promoted to "Officier" in 1953.

Annemarie Schwarzenbach

According to Schwarzenbach's biographers, Clarac was gay, and theirs was a marriage of convenience for both of them, to have Schwarzenbach, who was lesbian, obtaining a French diplomatic passport enabling her to travel without restrictions. 

When Schwarzenbach fell from her bicycle in 1942 and sustained a serious head injury and was dying, Clarac rushed from Tehran to her deathbed in Engadin, Switzerland, but Schwarzenbach's mother would not allow everyone to see her daughter. 

After Annemarie's death, her mother destroyed all her letters and diaries. However a friend took care of her writings and photographs, which were later archived in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern.

Claude Clarac - The Later Years and Death

In 1971, with Michael Smithies, Claude wrote 'Discovering Thailand', published by Siam Publications.

In 1973, under the pen-name of Saint Ours he wrote the gay collection of 7 stories, 'Un Ange à Sodome' (An Angel in Sodom), with the publisher Guy Authier.

Claude Clarac died at the age of 95 in Oudon, France on the 11th. January 1999.

Taken on: January 7, 2022

Tags:

postcard

old

nostalgia

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High

Road

Stengel

Dresden

Berlin

north

London

Sunnyhill

pub

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Lion

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31/08/1903

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Trimley

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Mary

Suffolk

Arthur

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Manhattan

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1983

Achille

Claude

Clarac

Nantes

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1930

1934

Tehran

1935

Annemarie

Schwarzenbach

1908

1942

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1999 « less

Sets appears in: • Norbury, Streatham and Brixton • UK

Stats: 1,288 views

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