Genealogy Chat

Hope Biddulph and his first wife Mabel Urquhart had a very juicy divorce (Biddulph vs Biddulph and Ewen), reported in exhaustive detail in The Times. A Miss Mabel Holmes was called as witness to Mrs Biddulph's purported adultery. I assume she would become the second wife. But this is getting away from the matter of the photograph album and love letter (or is it??). I have contacted the seller of the eBay item to see if there is any further clue as to the identity of the young lady.

oh what a smashing find that would be

Biddulph is a pretty rare surname. Fewer than 1500 of them in England/Wales today. Fewer than 750 come up in an 1881 census search. How many could possibly have been lieutenant-colonels? The London Gazette reports the promotion to lieutenant-colonel of Major Hope Biddulph in 1913, but he (one quick google later) married Mabel Alice Holmes in 1911, so perhaps he's not the recipient of the 1916 love letter.

This one sounds fascinating, though the description uses rather eccentric English (the seller is Belgian): 'This charming album of hundred photographies, done for a part in Sepia tones, show the life of a charming young lady in her nice cottage of Hurley (Berkshire) during the First World War, she shares her life between Hurley, Haslemere, Watergate bay (Cornwall) and Switzerland. Most of the photos in the album are not dated. Dated photographs range from the spring 1915 to 1916. This album included the personal love correspondence from which a letter from London, 25 Market Street addressed to [Lt Col] Biddulph in Harrogate (Yorkshire) and dated 25 September 1916' I bet there's enough information there to figure out who the young lady is. Anyone want to give it a go? URL is http://cgi.ebay(.)co(.)uk/Photo-album-of-a-charming-young-lady-1915-1918_W0QQitemZ200038282349QQihZ010QQcategoryZ26265QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem or http://tinyurl(.)com/yfn38e if you prefer. Peter.

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