The Postcard
A Hartmann postcard that was posted using a ½d. stamp on Monday the 17th. April 1905. The card was sent to:
Miss S. Piper,
6, Brookdale Road,
Sefton Park,
Liverpool.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Annie & I are here
for ½ a day.
Ted."
Beaumanor Hall Lodge
Beaumanor Hall Lodge in Woodhouse, Leicestershire is a five-bedroom freehold property originally built as the gatehouse to the Beaumanor Hall estate. It was Grade II Listed in 1984.
Built between 1842 and 1854 by architect William Railton for the Herrick family, Beaumanor Hall remained in their possession until World War II, when the estate was requisitioned by the War Office in 1940 and set up as a Y Station.
Y Stations were British Signals Intelligence collection sites used during World War II, and throughout the war the Hall was used as a secret listening station to intercept encrypted enemy signals.
Y Stations collected radio traffic which was then passed for processing to Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. The traffic was initially recorded by hand on paper and sent to Bletchley by motorcycle couriers, although later in the war the information was sent by teleprinter over post office land lines.
Buildings were erected in the Beaumanor Hall grounds (which are still in place) disguised as cottages, barns, stables etc. These housed the intercept personnel listening for German and Italian encrypted messages.
The Hall was bought by Leicestershire County Council in 1974 for use as an education and conference centre.
Tsar Nicholas II
So what else happened on the day that Ted posted the card?
Well on the 17th. April 1905, Russia's Tsar Nicholas II issued a decree granting religious freedom to his subjects, allowing believers outside the Russian Orthodox Church (including Roman Catholics and Muslims) to minister to Russians.
The Massacre of the Tsar and his Family
When the photo portrait of Nicholas below was taken, Tsar Nicholas II was unaware that he only had six years left to live.
Bolshevik officer Yakov Yurovsky (the chief executioner), reported that in the early hours of the 17th. July 1918, the royal family were awakened around 2:00 am, and asked to get dressed. They were then led down into a half-basement room at the back of the Ipatiev house.
The pretext for this move was the family's safety, i.e. that anti-Bolshevik forces were approaching Yekaterinburg, and the house might be fired upon.
Present with Nicholas, Alexandra and their children were their doctor and three of their servants, who had voluntarily chosen to remain with the family -- they were the Tsar's personal physician Eugene Botkin, his wife's maid Anna Demidova, the family chef, Ivan Kharitonov, and footman Alexei Trupp.
A firing squad had been previously assembled and was waiting in an adjoining room. The squad comprised seven Communist soldiers from Central Europe, and three local Bolsheviks, all under the command of Yurovsky.
Nicholas was carrying his son. When the family arrived in the basement, the former Tzar asked if chairs could be brought in for his wife and son to sit on.
Yurovsky ordered two chairs to be brought in, and when the empress and the heir were seated, the executioners filed into the room.
Yurovsky announced to the family that the Ural Soviet of Workers' Deputies had decided to execute them. A stunned Nicholas asked, "What? What did you say?" and turned toward his family.
Yurovsky quickly repeated the order and Nicholas said, according to Peter Ermakov:
"You know not what you do."
The executioners drew handguns and began shooting; Nicholas was the first to die. Yurovsky took credit afterwards for firing the first shot that killed the Tsar, but his protégé —Grigory Nikulin — said years later that Mikhail Medvedev had fired the shot that killed Nicholas:
"He fired the first shot.
He killed the Tsar."
Nikulin said this in 1964 in a tape-recorded statement for the radio.
Nicholas was shot several times in the chest (sometimes erroneously said to have been shot in his head, but his skull bore no bullet wounds when it was discovered in 1991).
Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga, and Maria survived the first hail of bullets; the sisters were wearing over 1.3 kilograms of diamonds and precious gems sewn into their clothing, which may have provided some initial protection from the bullets.
They were then stabbed with bayonets and finally shot at close range in their heads.
The 8-Hour-Day Law
Also on that day, in the case of Lochner v. New York, the Supreme Court of the United States invalidated New York's 8-hour-day law in a 5 to 4 decision.
