The Postcard
A Celesque Series postcard that was published by The Photochrom Co. Ltd. of London and Tunbridge Wells. The card was posted in Sandown, Isle of Wight using a ½d. stamp on Monday the 15th. September 1913. It was sent to:
Miss Pallett,
c/o Mrs. Powell,
"The Bull",
Hanslope,
Bucks.
The Black Bull, in Hanslope, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire was built in 1863 and enlarged in 1877. Miss Powell was probably in service at the establishment, because Kelly's Directory of 1915 lists Thomas Powell as the publican.
The pencilled message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Dear Alice,
We are having a nice time
here. The weather is fine,
but rather cold.
We went to a concert on
the pier Saturday.
Love to all,
Anne."
Sandown
Sandown is a seaside resort town on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, with the resort of Shanklin to the south and the settlement of Lake in between.
Sandown has a population of 11,654 according to the 2021 Census, and together with Shanklin and Lake forms a built-up area of around 25,000 inhabitants.
The northernmost town of Sandown Bay, Sandown has an easily accessible, sandy shoreline with beaches that run continuously from the cliffs at Battery Gardens in the south to Yaverland in the north.
The First Successful Four-Wheel Drive Vehicle
So what else happened on the day that Anne posted the card to Alice?
Well, on the 15th. September 1913, the first successful four-wheel drive vehicle, the Jeffery Quad, was delivered to the United States Army by the Thomas B. Jeffery Company.
With modifications, the Quad became the transport vehicle of choice for the armies of France, Russia and the United States during the Great War.
The Quad's production continued for 15 years, with a total of 41,674 units being manufactured.
The Quads ability to traverse terrain across the globe that challenged modern trucks meant that civilians used their slow, but unstoppable work at least until the 1950's.
John N. Mitchell
The day also marked the birth in Detroit of the American politician John N. Mitchell.
John, who became the 67th. United States Attorney General, was convicted and served time for his involvement in the Watergate scandal. He died in 1988.
Mitchell and the Watergate Scandal
In the days immediately after the Watergate break-in of the 17th. June 1972, Mitchell enlisted former FBI agent Steve King to prevent his wife Martha from learning about the break-in or contacting reporters.
While she was on a phone call with journalist Helen Thomas about the break-in, King pulled the phone cord from the wall. Mrs. Mitchell was then held against her will in a California hotel room and forcibly sedated by a psychiatrist after a physical struggle with five men that left her needing stitches.
Nixon aides, in an effort to discredit her, told the press that she had a "drinking problem". Nixon later told interviewer David Frost in 1977 that Martha was a distraction to John Mitchell, such that no one was minding the store, and that:
"If it hadn't been for Martha Mitchell,
there'd have been no Watergate."
In 1972, when asked to comment about a forthcoming article that reported that he controlled a political slush fund used for gathering intelligence on the Democrats, he famously uttered an implied threat to reporter Carl Bernstein:
"Katie Graham's gonna get her
tit caught in a big fat wringer if
that's published."
In July 1973, when Mitchell testified before the Senate Watergate Committee, he claimed that he had no prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in, which contradicted the testimony of others who appeared before the committee.
He admitted that he was briefed on the 27th. January 1972, while he was the attorney general, by G. Gordon Liddy on Operation Gemstone, which proposed numerous illegal activities in order to support the re-election of President Nixon.
These activities included the use of prostitutes, kidnapping, and assaulting anti-war protestors. Mitchell testified that he should have thrown Liddy "out of the window".
Jeb Stuart Magruder and John Dean testified to the committee that Mitchell later approved electronic surveillance (i.e., bugging telephones) but did not approve of the other proposed activities.
Despite Mitchell's testimony, tape recordings made by President Nixon and the testimony of others involved confirmed that Mitchell had participated in meetings to plan the break-in of the Democratic Party's national headquarters in the Watergate Office Building.
In addition, he had met with the president on at least three occasions to cover up White House involvement, using illegal means such as witness tampering, after the burglars were discovered and arrested.
On the 1st. January 1975, Mitchell was found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury. He was sentenced to two-and-a-half to eight years in prison for his role in the Watergate break-in and cover-up, which he dubbed the "White House horrors".
As a result of the conviction, Mitchell was disbarred from the practice of law in New York. The sentence was later reduced to one-to-four years by United States District Court Judge John J. Sirica. Mitchell served only 19 months of his sentence at Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery (in Maxwell Air Force Base) in Montgomery, Alabama, a minimum-security prison, before being released on parole for medical reasons.
The Death of John N. Mitchell
Around 5:00 pm on the 9th. November 1988, Mitchell collapsed from a heart attack on the sidewalk in front of 2812 N Street NW in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C., and died that evening at George Washington University Hospital. He was 75 years of age when he died.
He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. He was eligible for the honor because of his World War II Naval service and for having held the cabinet post of Attorney General.