A 90-year old postcard prompts memories of a grandmother's links to the Lakin family of Horetown House, Co Wexford... For Sunday Miscellany on RTÉ Rdaio 1, listen to Postcard to Annie, by AM Cousins above.
On the 22nd of June, 1930, fourteen-year-old Gerald Lakin sent a postcard from Eton College to his family's parlourmaid in Ireland, asking her to 'please send’ him a pair of "long, flannel trousers". Over 90 years later, I’m holding the card in my hand.
The handwriting is the elegant cursive of the time, and the underlining of the words ‘long’ and ‘flannel’ gives an air of urgency to the message. The long trousers were to be sent care of his housemaster, J C Batterwick Esq, ‘as soon as possible,’ and I can only surmise that cricket season was approaching, or that the boy was hoping to go boating and needed to appear in attire befitting a young gentleman...
Listen to more from Sunday Miscellany here.
