The Postcard
A postcard that was published by Langsdorff & Co. of 19, City Road, London E.C.
The card was posted in Bognor using a ½d. stamp on Thursday the 10th. October 1907 to:
Miss McAbbott,
'Trevelyan',
Haywards Heath,
Sussex.
There was also a brief message on the divided back of the card:
"We all think there is a
slight likeness to you.
M."
E. P. Kinsella
The artwork was by E. P. Kinsella.
Patrick Russell Edmund Kinsella was born in Liverpool in 1875, the son of Peter "Pat" Kinsella, actor and singer, who toured the British music halls with his wife, Flora, and also ran a small music hall in Dublin.
When he moved to London to work as an illustrator and designer of theatrical sets and posters. he used the name Edmund Patrick Kinsella.
He married Emma Lilian Webber in late 1903, and they had three children: Ena (b. 1904), Peter (b. 1906) and Mary (known as Mollie, b. 1908).
In 1906 a design for a humorous postcard showing a boy playing cricket led to a successful series of postcards depicting boys, and girls, playing various sports.
During the Great War, Edmund and Horace Morgan formed the Kinsella & Morgan Film Company to make cartoons and live-action shorts for the War Aims Committee. Between 1917-18, Kinsella produced seven Kincartoons, as well as animated sequences for a live-action short.
Edmund illustrated several book-jackets in the early 1930's, signed E. P. K.
Edmund died at the age of 62 at his home in Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, on the evening of the 8th. May 1936.
Trevelyan School
There is now a Trevelyan Place in Haywards Heath containing mature specimen trees and small modern blocks of flats; this indicates that the original building was demolished and the grounds developed.
In fact the site was occupied by Trevelyan -- a small, private school for girls. There was one large, redbrick building with about two or three acres of grounds and gardens. One former pupil remembers:
"The grounds were wonderful to explore.
I can still recall the damp autumnal smell
of the tall laurel hedges which lined the
brick paths behind the school building."
The school was run on strict, almost military lines, with the girls all coming from upper class, mostly wealthy, families.
The following is the text from an early press ad for the school:
'Trevelyan School,
Haywards Heath.
Principals: Miss Rolfe and Miss Kelsey.
The school, which was built for purpose, is on
very high ground, facing due South. The house
stands in its own grounds, and has three Grass
Tennis Courts and one Hard Court.
There are six Bath Rooms, Shower Baths, Central
Heating, Electric Light, and an Outside Iron Fire
Staircase, with which each landing communicates.
The health of the girls is the special care of the
Principals, who are helped by a Matron and
Assistant Matron.
The diet is carefully arranged, and the girls have
plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables and certified milk.
Hockey, Lacrosse and Netball are taught by a
certified Games Mistress.
The Principals undertake the entire charge of
children whose parents are abroad, and arrange
for them to spend their holidays at the seaside.'
Sadly the school went the way of many private girls' schools in the UK, and Trevelyan School Ltd. was liquidated in July 1969, its main asset being the land upon which it stood.
Lady Sibell Lygon
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 10th. October 1907 marked the birth of Lady Sibell Lygon.
Sibell was an English socialite, and one of the 'Bright Young Things.'
Lady Sibell was the daughter of William Lygon, 7th. Earl Beauchamp and Lady Lettice Grosvenor.
An incident when Sibell and her sister, Mary, remained closed out of their home, Halkin House, inspired a scene of Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies.
Most of their life at Madresfield Court inspired Brideshead Revisited.
Madresfield Court is a moated stately home which has been in the Lygon family for nearly 900 years, and is currently (2023) home to the 29th. generation of the family. It is near Malvern in the heart of rural Worcestershire, at the foot of the Malvern Hills.
Sibell Lygon was the receptionist at the hairdressing and beauty establishment in Bond Street run by Violet Cripps, former wife of her maternal uncle, Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd. Duke of Westminster.
Sibell was also a Socialist and a journalist, and contributed stories to Harper's Bazaar.
In 1935, her name was linked to that of George II of Greece, together with Primrose Salt, Lady Mary Lygon, and Lady Bridget Poulett.
On the 11th. February 1939, Lady Sibell Lygon married Michael Rowley, an aircraft designer eight years her junior, son of Violet Cripps. Since the previous marriage of Rowley was not legally dissolved, the 1939 marriage was considered bigamy, and they married again in 1949. Michael died of a brain tumor in 1952.
In 1953, Sibell was named Master of the Ledbury Hunt.
Sibell lived in Droitwich and Stow-on-the-Wold. She had a relationship with Harry Primrose, 6th. Earl of Rosebery.
Sibell died on the 31st. October 2005, aged 98, and was laid to rest at Madresfield.
