Editorial

The dark days of January are now past and with Valentines’s Day fast approaching, the shops are filled with red hearts, flowers, cards and chocolates. It’s the season of love or as The Illustrated London News on 11 February 1871 put it, the “silly season”. In a previous article, Courtship, I wrote about how some of my ancestors might have first become acquainted with each other. This got me thinking about whether they too were busy buying cards and gifts for their sweethearts at this time of year.

Newspapers are my favourite source for learning more about every day life and society so I decided to see what I could discover about Valentine’s Day customs in times past by searching newspapers for the period 1850-1899. This can be easily done, using some key search terms, on the websites of the British Newspaper Archives, FindmyPast or Newspapers.com. After a little browsing, I soon found evidence of the day’s popularity and clearly for the Victorians, the sending of cards was central to its celebration with love-lorn admirers sending heartfelt messages, often anonymously. The advent of the Penny Post in 1840 had greatly facilitated this:

The amount of pictorial lovemaking which that useful official [Sir Rowland Hill] has encouraged by the penny postage is something really alarming… We cannot but pity the poor postman with their loads of love.

Carmarthen Journal 26 February 1864

Certainly, there was many expressions of sympathy in the newsprint for overworked postmen and their heavy bags. By 1870, a million and a half Valentine’s Day cards were posted, quite a contrast to today with the drastic reduction in the volume of letters and cards now delivered.

A great variety of decorative cards were on offer to be purchased in time for the big day. In a rather sneering tone, The Illustrated London News describes shop windows full of “swarming sheets of tawdry tinsel, and gross anonymous caricatures, and idiotic doggerel”. Generally though, the advent of commercial card making was considered in a positive light:

The manufacture of valentines is becoming a more important industry every year. And perhaps this is some sort of answer to those who would have us believe that civilisation by steam-power is fast knocking all the romance, pageantry, and poetry of life out of us.

Kenilworth Advertiser 12 February 1881

There were those though that thought that the commercialisation of Valentine’s Day had removed a lot of its romance:

It was a very different matter dropping a valentine into a post office at the present time from the way in which a lover in the time gone by used to creep stealthily from his house, and tremblingly deliver his own missive.

Liverpool Echo 14 February 1881

Many newspapers sought to educate readers on the historical origins of St Valentine. In addition, Chaucer, Shakespeare and Pepys, who all mention Valentine’s Day in their writings, were often quoted. It is also apparent that there was a certain nostalgia for old customs that had once been prevalent, especially in country areas:

In England and Scotland mock betrothals played a prominent part in rural districts, though people of a sentimental turn of mind frequently took them seriously. Charms and omens regarding matrimonial prospects, somewhat similar to those in vogue at Halloween were also employed on Valentine’s Eve.

The Evening Telegraph Tuesday February 14 1899

Indeed, there were many accounts of Valentine’s Day traditions and superstitions. For example, it had once been common for couples to be selected by lot on Valentine’s Day. Typically, girls in a village would put their names on slips of paper and enter them into a bag or similar receptacle. The bachelors would then each draw a slip and the girl whose name was on the paper they had drawn would be their valentine for a year. Another tradition was for girls to place five bay leaves under their pillow on Valentine’s Day Eve. It was believed that if they dreamt of their sweetheart, they would marry them within the year. Alternatively, it was a common superstition was that you would marry the first unmarried person you saw on Valentine’s Day morning. Customs varied around the country. In Norfolk, it was a common practice to give gifts to friends anonymously. After ringing the bell, the gift would be left on the doorstep and the benefactor would run away. In Kent, young girls would burn a vulgar effigy called the ‘Holly Boy”, which they had stolen from the boys, and similarly, the boys would burn the “Ivy Girl”, which they had stolen from the girls.

In general, newspaper accounts strongly suggest that our ancestors were pretty keen on celebrating Valentine’s Day. It sounds as if it was generally a day of fun, with traditions and games giving way to anonymous cards received in the post and gifts from sweethearts. Even if you have mixed feelings about the celebration of Valentine’s Day today, to finish on a positive note, I’ll leave with you with this sentiment:

Nowadays all except the stoical regard it as a harmless festival, full of amusement for young and old. As such it will always continue. St Valentine’s Day will be regarded as long as the world lasts, for where love is concerned there is always to be found adoration and life.

The Star of Gwent and South Wales Times Saturday February 17 1877

Genealogy News

This month a new exhibition has opened at The National Archives called “Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World War Captives”. This exhibition celebrates the remarkable human spirit displayed by prisoners of war (POWs), and the aim of the exhibition is to tell their stories through both records and artefacts. One story featured is that of Peter Melville Gardner, D.F.C., a Spitfire pilot who was shot down over France on 11 July 1941. A year later, whilst a POW at Stalag Luft III, he sends a letter back home to his mother. In the letter, he encloses a photograph of his fellow POW, Guy Griffiths, “my old school friend”, but hidden on tracing paper behind its backing was intelligence for MI9, the writing only visible with the aid of a magnifying glass. It included Peter’s candid appraisal of his fellow POW inmates, as he assessed their suitability for intelligence work.

This story is of particular interest to me as both Peter and my uncle, Gordon Batchelor, were pilots with 54 Squadron and were shot down within two days of each other. They were to meet again not long after at Dulag Luft, where captured airmen were interrogated. In Gordon’s pocket diary, he relates how he met “Pete Gardner and Ken Edwards, both of whom I know very well”. That night, Gordon wrote “I went to bed after much discussion on our exploits at 11.PM”. Sadly, Gordon died in hospital in Hamburg on 15th April 1942.

Peter is also one of the pilots commemorated by the Spirit of the Few monument, which was installed at the Kent Battle of Britain Museum in July 2022. Bronzes of seven pilots were made, based on a photograph of pilots of 32 Squadron taken at Hawkinge airfield eighty two years earlier in July 1940. I had the privilege of helping to find the family of one of the pilots featured, Rupert Smythe, who is on the far left in the photo below. Peter Melville Gardner is pictured second from right:

Further details on the exhibition and the full story of Peter Melville Gardner’s hidden letter can be found here: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/great-escapes/

Website Focus

It can be particularly challenging if you have London ancestors, particularly in the 18th century and at earlier dates. A source that is well worth looking at are the freeman records of the London livery companies. Until 1835, in order to become a freeman of the City of London, (which conferred trading and voting rights, as well as tax responsibilities), you had to be a freeman of a livery company. A person who was a freeman of both the City and a livery company was referred to as a citizen. Records relating to apprenticeship and admission to the company are particularly useful, as they can reveal family ties and biographical information. My Whitford ancestors were plasterers in London and freeman records recorded their roots in Worcestershire. Note though that the trade undertaken decreased in importance over time, and it is common to find that members of a company often practised an entirely different trade. A database of the records of eleven London livery companies can be searched on the website of London Roll. The records of additional companies are due to be added in the future.

Ancestry also has a large collection of papers associated with applications for freeman status called “London, England, Freedom of the City Admission Papers 1681-1930”, which can be found through the card catalogue.

Did you know

The iconic Statue of Liberty guards the entrance to the harbour of New York City and it is easy to imagine what a welcoming sight she was to emigrants after a long voyage. After being interviewed by immigration officials, they were free to begin their new lives. However, not everybody who entered the country were necessarily stopping. In fact, many passengers recorded on the ships’ manifests were just passing through, on their way to other places in the world. It can therefore be worth checking the Ellis Island Passenger Search database, especially if you have family members who travelled to South America or the Caribbean. Records of passengers who entered New York between 1820 and 1957 can be found here: https://heritage.statueofliberty.org/passenger.

Media moments

All four of my grandparents were born in the late Victorian era but sadly, I never got the chance to know them well, one dying before I was born and two when I was just a small child. I therefore found this video a fascinating insight into a world that my grandparents would have recognised. The ladies featured are both so engaging, as they talk about their teenage years in the 1890s. Hear about the wonder of the typewriter, the mud-caked streets of London, Cockney songs and girls bicycling to the seaside for fun.

My thanks to Marisa Cooper on X for alerting me to this video.

© Judith Batchelor 2024