Sir,
My father-in-law, the late Frederick Charles Fry, purchased the property known as Selwyn House, Begelly, in the early, to mid, 1970s. During the course of converting the property into flats, he came across an outbuilding that contained a large quantity of books on all sorts of subjects.
Before my father-in-law purchased Selwyn House, it was a private school and I believe these books were what remained of the old school library. Mr. Fry was clearing out the building and asked if I would like to take some of the books before they were disposed of.
I like books and so took as many as I could and stored them in my garage for many years until I finally got round to making a bookshelf large enough to accommodate them all.
As I unpacked the books and checked them, before putting them on the shelves, a number of photographs fell out of one of the books I was leafing through. I noticed there was writing on the back of two of them. After reading what was written on the back of these photographs, it became clear that they were photographs of the person to whom the book had been given. Inside the cover of the book was the name Edward Irving Peard and dated Xmas 1912. The photograph showed this gentleman in his greenhouse and garden in May 1922, with tulips he had grown.
Written on the back of one photo is 'Ted with record tulip, 6 heads on 1 stem. Grown by him, in the garden'. The other photo has 'Ted and his tulips' written on the back of it. Also in the book is a photograph of a lady I believe to be Ted's wife. There is also a slip of paper, on which is written 'Wishing my Sweetheart a Very Happy Christmas'.
Recently, when reading a copy of Tenby Times, dated July 2008, I noticed a photograph of a group of people and recognised one of the gentlemen in the photograph. After reading the article accompanying the photograph, I realised that this was the same gentleman as the one in the photograph that I had found in the book. In the front of the group photograph in the paper, sits a lady, Miss Gambol, who, it states, was to become Mrs. Peard and who, I believe, gave him that book at Christmas 1912.
If there are any relatives of Mr. and Mrs. Peard who would like these photographs, I would be only too pleased for them to have them.
David Mitchell,
Greenways,
Broadfield,
Saundersfoot.