ANOTHER TIME: One of the postcards, dated September 19, 1903, that Claude Ilton would like to find an owner for.
ANOTHER TIME: One of the postcards, dated September 19, 1903, that Claude Ilton would like to find an owner for.
Mystery surrounds a collection of more than 360 postcards that have been in Kaimaumau farmer Claude Ilton's family for some years. How they got there he doesn't know, but he has them carefully stored in an album. And he's keen to return them to the family they were originally sent,to, if he can find them.
Most of the postcards were dispatched by one Albert Depais, who died in battle in 1917.
They were sent to two or three families, many being posted to Therese Rigaut, in the village of Mailly-Maillet, near the Belgian border.
The village boasted a population of 602 in 1999, again in 2006 and yet again in 2007, which might make his search a little easier than it might otherwise have been.
Claude said he had approached the French embassy, which wasn't interested, but he was keen to return the collection to the descendants of the original recipients, if he can find them. He was hoping to go to England next year, he added, and would take the album to France if his search had not produced results by then.
