The Postcard
A postcard that was published by Valentine & Sons Ltd. of Dundee, London and New York. On the back of the card they state that the card is an official Franco-British Exhibition card, and include an image of the Official F B Seal.
The card was posted at the Exhibition on Monday the 24th. August 1908 to:
Monsieur A. Bougernier,
7, Rue du Nord,
Ivry-sur-Seine,
(Seine),
France.
The brief message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Londres 24 Août '08.
L. Lartenois."
The Franco-British Exhibition
In 1900 the Prince of Wales, who would later become King Edward VII, went to the Paris Exhibition, and when he became King, suggested to his government that Great Britain should hold an exhibition with France which would help to promote the Entente Cordiale between the two countries which was signed in 1904.
The King's suggestion resulted in the Franco-British Exhibition, which was a large public fair held in 1908.
A site was found on farmland near Shepherds Bush, with work starting in early 1907. Over a hundred buildings were erected. At the height of construction 4,000 men by day and 2,000 men by night worked to get the Exhibition ready for the 14th. May 1908.
In 1906 Italy was due to host the Olympics, but had to cancel after Mount Vesuvius erupted and caused widespread damage around Naples.
Great Britain was then asked to stage the Games, and a Stadium was built into the exhibition site. The cost of building the Stadium was £75,000, and it stood until 1985. The Games were a great success, and Great Britain won 56 gold medals, with the US winning 23.
The area is still called White City, having acquired its name from the exhibition buildings which were all faced with white marble or painted white.
During the Exhibition members of the British Empire came and showed their countries produce and machinery. Visitors could visit Pavilions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, Ceylon, with France, Algeria and its other colonies.
Great Britain and France had a pavilion showing Arts and Women's Work. There was a complete Irish Village, which had Irish Colleens working in it, and visitors could kiss the Blarney Stone.
The Exhibition covered an area of 140 acres (0.57 sq. km), including an artificial lake, surrounded by an immense network of white buildings in elaborate (often Oriental) styles. Over eight million visitors each paid one shilling (5p) to see the Exhibition.
One of the main attractions was the Flip Flap. It had two arms 150ft long with a carriage at the end which could carry up to 40 people at a time. It took three minutes and 20 seconds for the journey from one side to the other, and cost six pence.
Three songs were composed about the Flip Flap and could be heard in the London Music Halls. There was also a Scenic Mountain Railway, a Canadian Toboggan Run and a Spiral Ride, along with many other attractions.
The Exhibition was open from 11am until 11pm, Monday to Saturday from the 14th. May 1908 until the 31st. October 1908. In the bandstands around the exhibition, regimental bands played throughout the day.
Other exhibitions were held on the site in 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, and 1914. In 1909 the exhibition site hosted the Imperial International Exhibition, and in 1910, the Japan-British Exhibition.
The Coronation Exhibition of 1911 was held in order to celebrate the coronation of King George V and Mary of Teck on the 22nd. June 1911.
The final two exhibitions to be held there were the Latin-British Exhibition (1912) and the Anglo-American Exhibition (1914), which was brought to a premature end by the outbreak of the Great War.
The stadium was used for greyhound racing from 1927 until 1984.
The Exhibition site is now occupied by the BBC Television Centre, opened in 1960, and the Westfield Shopping Centre, which opened in 2008. The BBC Television Centre was built on the site of the Stadium and the Court of Honour.
The last remaining buildings of the 1908 exhibition were demolished to make way for the Westfield development.
A Deadly Duel
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 24th. August 1908 was not a good day for the Duke Karl Borwin of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in Germany, because he died at the age of 19 on that day.
Karl, who was born on the 10th. October 1888, was said to have been killed in a duel with his brother-in-law Count George Jametel, defending his sister's honour. Karl was stationed at the war school in Metz at the time.
Karl Borwin was buried on the 31st. August 1908 in the New Crypt of the Mirow Castle Church. Contrary to the tradition of the grand ducal house, there was no laying out; the coffin had already been locked in Metz, and was brought directly to Mirow.
The cause of Karl's death was obscured, which led to speculation. A suicide of the Duke is still being discussed "after a drunken ensign had made derogatory comments about his sisters".
In 1918, the New York Times reported that Karl Borwin was killed in a car accident, and died after a short, serious, insidious suffering.
Éleuthère Mascart
Éleuthère Mascart also died on that day.
Éleuthère Élie Nicolas Mascart, who was born on the 20th. February 1837, was a noted French physicist, a researcher in optics, electricity, magnetism, and meteorology.
Mascart was born in Quarouble, Nord. Starting in 1858, he attended the École Normale Supérieure, earning his Agrégé-Préparateur three years later.
Éleuthère acquired his doctoral degree in science in 1864. He won the Bordin Prize of the Académie Française in 1866. After serving at various posts in secondary education, in 1868 he moved to the Collège de France to become Henri Victor Regnault's assistant.
Mascart was appointed to succeed Régnault as the tenured Régnault chair in 1872, which he held until his death. Éleuthère won the Grand Prix of the Académie des Sciences in 1874.
In 1878 he became the first director of the Bureau Central Météorologique.
He was elected Perpetual Member (1884), Secretary, and in 1904 President, of the Académie des Sciences, and in 1892, Foreign Member of the British Royal Society.
Mascart was elected vice-president of the British Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1900, the first non-Briton to hold the post.
Mascart's graduate student Henri Bénard carried out groundbreaking experiments in thermal convection, as part of his dissertation research, in Mascart's laboratory. Bénard's doctoral thesis was defended in 1901.
Mascart died in Paris at the age of 71. Obituaries were published in the Journal de Physique Théorique et Appliquée, and in Nature.
Mascart's son-in-law Marcel Brillouin and his grandson Léon Brillouin were also noted scientists.
Cape Mascart in Antarctica is named after him.
