A year ago, Denise had enthralled members with Violet’s Story, her account of the life of Violet Blakestone, whose collection of postcards Denise had acquired as part of an auction lot during the 1960s. Denise had only begun her research in the 1990s and had ended the talk with a diagram setting out the relationship between the people who had sent the postcards to Violet. (See Past Events 8 April 2025 for Violet’s Story Part 1)
After a short resume of the story so far, Denise explained that a discovery of a brochure for Fulneck School in Pudsey had revealed that Violet was in service at the (boys’) school in 1903 when she had received the very first postcard in the collection. After the discovery that Violet and first husband, Joel, were married in Newcastle (why?) and confirming that Joel had been serving in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) in April 1918 when he was killed, Denise and her husband, John, set themselves four objectives: to find Joel’s grave; to find Violet’s grave; to speak to someone who had known Violet; a photograph of Violet.
- Denise and John visited the Berks Extension War Memorial outside Ypres, Belgium and found Joel Clark’s name listed with other members of the KOYLI who had died in action.
- As revealed in Part 1, Violet married John Hughes, licensee of the Featherstone Hotel, in 1934. Violet’s birth certificate stated that she had been born in Featherstone on 13 January 1888 and census records showed that the Hughes and Blakestone families had been neighbours. Violet had survived John Hughes and died, intestate, on 20 January 1968. Probate records showed that her 12 brothers and sisters inherited. She was cremated – no grave. As a result of Denise’s enquiries with the Blakestone family, a gathering of over 30 members of the family held a reunion at the Featherstone Hotel. None had known Violet.
- Ian Clayton, a local historian and TV presenter attended the gathering at the Featherstone Hotel, accompanied by an acquaintance who had run errands for John and Violet Hughes in his youth.
- Further research enabled Denise to compile an extended family tree, but she had been unable to find a photo of Violet. Having looked back through the postcards, Denise tried to contact Violet’s niece, Winnie, via a newspaper appeal. A reply came from Mona Roberts, the daughter of Joel’s brother, Harry, who invited Denise to visit her. Mona had Joel’s ‘death penny’ on display and had a photo of Violet and May (Violet’s close friend) with Mona. She also had a postcard and photo album that had belonged to Aunt Ada (Joel’s sister), that included postcards Violet sent to Ada, along with postcards from Joel that were very similar to the ones in Denise’s collection. There was also an ‘embarkation’ photo of Joel and Violet, when Joel first left to fight in France. Subsequently, Mona sent Denise another tin that contained a photo of Joel and Harry, as well as letters that Joel and Harry sent from ‘the front’.
As a postscript, Denise explained that she had undertaken all the original research through primary sources: newspapers, photographs, certificates, census records etc. there had been no internet records at that time. However, later, she found a birth certificate for twin boys born to Violet and Joel – in Newcastle! This explained why Violet and Joel had married in the city. Both boys had died within a day of their birth.
This marked a very sad end to a wonderful detective story, which had begun with a chance purchase over 50 years previously; a fascinating and emotional rollercoaster for all who were in attendance.